James Boswell, The Journals in Scotland, England and Ireland, 1766-1769 9781399501026

Table of contents :
Contents
Editorial note
Acknowledgments
Note on the texts
Editorial procedures
Cue titles and abbreviations
Introduction
THE JOURNALS
1766
1767
1768
1769
Editorial Postscript
Glossary of Scottish legal terms and Latin and Scots words and phrases
Index

Citation preview

theyale yaleeditions editions of the The Private Private Papers Papers The JamesBoswell Boswell ofofJames

research RESEARCH edition EDITION Catalogue Catalogue Catalogue of the Papers Catalogue Papersof ofJames JamesBoswell BoswellatatYale Yale University, by Marion S. Pottle, University, Pottle, Claude Claude Colleer ColleerAbbott, Abbott, andFrederick Frederick A. A. Pottle, Pottle, 33 Vols., Vols., 1993 and

Correspondence Correspondence Volume11  TheCorrespondence Correspondence of Volume The of James JamesBoswell Boswelland andJohn JohnJohnston Johnston ofGrange, Grange, edited edited by by Ralph Ralph S. S.Walker, Walker,1966 1966 of Volume22  The Correspondence Correspondence and Papers of of James Boswell Volume The andOther Other Papers James Boswell Relating to the , edited Relating the Making Makingof ofthe theLife LifeofofJohnson Johnson , editedbyby MarshallWaingrow, Waingrow,1969; 1969;2nd 2ndedition, edition,corrected correctedand andenlarged, enlarged,2001 2001 Marshall Volume33  TheCorrespondence Correspondence of Volume The of James JamesBoswell Boswellwith withCertain Certain Members of The Club, Members Club,edited editedby by Charles Charles N. N. Fifer, Fifer, 1976 1976 Volume44  TheCorrespondence Correspondence of of James Boswell with Volume The with David David Garrick, Garrick, EdmundBurke, Burke, and and Edmond Edmond Malone, edited by Peter S. Baker, Edmund ThomasW. W.Copeland, Copeland,George GeorgeM. M.Kahrl, Kahrl,Rachel RachelMcClellan, McClellan,and and Thomas JamesOsborn, Osborn,with withthe theassistance assistanceofofRobert RobertMankin Mankinand andMark Mark James Wollaeger,1986 1986 Wollaeger,

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 1

27/02/23 6:13 PM

Volume 5

 he General Correspondence of James Boswell, T 1766–1769, Vol 1: 1766–1767, edited by Richard C. Cole, with Peter S. Baker and Rachel McClellan, and with the assistance of James J. Caudle, 1993

Volume 6

 he Correspondence of James Boswell and William T Johnson Temple, 1756–1795, Vol. 1: 1756–1777, edited by Thomas Crawford, 1997

Volume 7

 he General Correspondence of James Boswell, T 1766–1769, Vol. 2: 1768–1769, edited by Richard C. Cole, with Peter S. Baker and Rachel McClellan, and with the assistance of James J. Caudle, 1997

Volume 8

 he Correspondence of James Boswell with James Bruce T and Andrew Gibb, Overseers of the Auchinleck Estate, edited by Nellie Pottle Hankins and John Strawhorn, 1998

Volume 9

 he General Correspondence of James Boswell, T 1757–1763, edited by David Hankins and James J. Caudle, 2006

Volume 10 T  he Correspondence of James Boswell and Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, edited by Richard B. Sher, 2022

Journals Volume 1

J ames Boswell: The Journal of his German and Swiss Travels, 1764, edited by Marlies K. Danziger, 2008

Volume 2  James Boswell: The Journals in Scotland, England and Ireland, 1766–1769, edited by Hugh M. Milne, 2023

Life of Johnson Volume 1

James Boswell’s Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript, in Four Volumes, Vol. 1: 1709–1765, edited by Marshall Waingrow, 1994

Volume 2

James Boswell’s Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript, in Four Volumes, Vol. 2: 1766–1776, edited by Bruce Redford, with Elizabeth Goldring, 1998

Volume 3

James Boswell’s Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript, in Four Volumes, Vol. 3: 1776–1780, edited by Thomas F. Bonnell, 2012

Volume 4

James Boswell’s Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript, in Four Volumes, Vol. 4: 1780–1784, edited by Thomas F. Bonnell, 2019

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 2

27/02/23 6:13 PM

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF

James Boswell James AND Boswell: THE JOURNALS in Scotland,

Sir William Forbes THE CORRESPONDENCE ENGLAND and Ireland, OF1766–1769 PITSLIGO OF

James Boswell edited edited by

AND Richard Sher Hugh M.B.Milne

Sir William Forbes OF PITSLIGO

edited by

Richard B. Sher

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS Edinburgh

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS New Haven and London

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS EDINBURGH PRESS Edinburgh

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS New Haven and London

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 3

27/02/23 6:13 PM

Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © editorial matter and organization, Hugh M. Milne 2023 Cover design: Stuart Dalziel

Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 10/12 Goudy Std by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd, and printed and bound in Great Britain A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 1026 7 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 3995 0102 6 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 1027 4 (epub)

The right of Hugh M. Milne to be identified as the editor of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 4

27/02/23 6:13 PM

THE CORRESPONDENCE Boswell’s Journals, Volume 2 OF

james boswell: the journals in scotland, england and ireland, 1766–1769

James Boswell AND

Sir William Forbes OF PITSLIGO

edited edited by

Richard Sher Hugh M.B.Milne

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS Edinburgh

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS New Haven and London

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 5

27/02/23 6:13 PM

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 6

27/02/23 6:13 PM

contents Editorial Note viii Acknowledgments ix Note on the Texts xiii Editorial Procedures xiv Cue Titles and Abbreviations xvii Introduction1 The Journals:  1766 43  1767 67  1768 203  1769 341 Editorial Postscript 365 Glossary of Scottish Legal Terms and Latin and Scots Words and Phrases 368 Index380

vii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 7

27/02/23 6:13 PM

editorial note The Research Edition of the Private Papers of James Boswell consists of three coordinated series: Boswell’s journals in all their varieties, his correspondence, and the manuscript of the Life of Johnson, the four-volume edition of which was completed in 2019. The undertaking is a co-operative one involving many scholars, and publication is proceeding in the order in which the volumes are completed for the press. The parallel Trade Edition, based for the most part on Boswell’s journal, began publication in 1950 and was completed in thirteen volumes in 1989. While the annotation of that edition primarily turned inwards towards the text, the annotation of the Research Edition turns outwards from the text as well so as to relate the documents to the various areas of scholarship which they can illuminate: history (literary, linguistic, legal, medical, political, social, local), biography, bibliography and genealogy, among others. The comprehensiveness and coherence of the papers that Boswell chose to preserve make them highly useful for such treatment. The correspondence volumes fall into three categories: single-correspondent volumes, subject volumes of letters related to a topic or theme, and miscellaneouscorrespondence volumes of the remaining letters in chronological sequence.

viii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 8

27/02/23 6:13 PM

acknowledgments I have received considerable help from many individuals and institutions in preparing this work and wish to express my profound gratitude to the following, in no particular order: • The Editorial Committee of the Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell for the award of a Senior Warnock Fellowship which enabled me to study, and prepare a transcription of, the manuscript journals covered by this volume, which are held in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale. • Gordon Turnbull, General Editor of the Yale Boswell Editions until the Yale University administration’s termination of the project in June 2021, for inviting me to prepare this volume and for revising a draft of the volume while he was General Editor and very generously continuing to do so after the project’s closure. He made innumerable helpful and detailed suggestions, from which the volume has benefited immeasurably. He not only brought considerable expertise on Boswellian matters, but also displayed remarkable genealogical skills in identifying obscure individuals. This volume would never have come to fruition without his unfailing support and enthusiasm over many years. I have many happy memories of chatting with him over meals at various restaurants around the Yale campus. • James J. Caudle, former Associate Editor of the Yale Boswell Editions, for very obligingly providing me with an initial draft transcription of Boswell’s notebook containing the memoranda, notes and jottings compiled in the autumn of 1766 (the writing in which is unusually faint in many instances, making it particularly difficult to decipher) and giving me an extremely helpful set of notes with regard to the contents of that notebook. He consistently gave me unstinting support, assistance and encouragement throughout the preparation of this volume. • Nadine Honigberg, former Administrative Assistant, and Andrew Heisel, former Associate Editor, both at the Yale Boswell Editions, for providing much valuable assistance before, during and after my visit to Yale to study the manuscript journals covered by this volume. • Justin Brooks, a former intern at the Yale Boswell Editions, for reading my transcription of the journals covered by this volume and making many helpful and perceptive suggestions. Nothing escaped his keen eye for detail. • Allan Hood, a former member of the Classics Department at the University of Edinburgh, for providing valuable assistance with Latin and Greek translations. ix

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 9

27/02/23 6:13 PM

acknowledgments • Carlo Lenoci for providing valuable assistance with Italian translations. • Henrietta Dundas for kindly allowing me to inspect certain volumes held at Arniston House which Boswell consulted there. • Dane Love for providing me with helpful local knowledge in respect of Auchinleck estate. • Michael R. Leven for providing valuable assistance on an ornithological matter. • Kim Holden, Library & Archives Assistant, Manx National Heritage Library and Archives, for providing me with copies of certain manuscripts held there. • Edinburgh University Press for publishing this volume, notwithstanding the termination of the Yale Boswell Editions project. My thanks go in particular to Michelle Houston, Susannah Butler and Fiona Conn. • Wendy Lee, copy editor, for her consistently positive approach throughout the process of finalizing the typescript, for her discerning comments and for dealing so patiently with requested changes. I am also grateful to my fellow volume editors, Richard B. Sher, John Eglin, Nigel Aston and Murray Pittock, for sharing drafts and proofs and discussing concerns. I have received much assistance from staff in many libraries and repositories. I wish to record in particular my thanks to the following: the staff at the National Library of Scotland; the staff at the Historical Search Room in HM General Register House, Edinburgh, with special thanks to Heike Vieth, Search Room Archivist, and Simon Johnson, Archivist (Digital Services); the staff at the British Library, London; the staff at the Guildhall Library, London; and the staff at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale, with special thanks to Moira Fitzgerald, Head, Access Services. For basic biographical details, I have relied on many standard reference works, but wish to acknowledge in particular the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke’s The House of Commons, 1754–1790 (1964). With regard to biographical details of Boswell himself, my indebtedness to Frederick A. Pottle’s James Boswell, The Earlier Years, 1740–1769 (1966) cannot be overstated. I am most grateful to the following for kindly giving me the permissions specified: • Yale University for permission to quote from journal entries, correspondence and annotations in volumes in the Yale Boswell Editions. • Gordon Turnbull for permission to quote from journal entries and annotations in his edition of Boswell’s London Journal 1762–1763 in the Penguin Classics series, and for giving me an advance copy of his article ‘James Boswell and John Trail (1700–1774)’, later published in Notes and Queries, and allowing me to draw freely from it in a footnote. • The Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet, owners of the Signet Library, for permission to refer to two printed legal papers held by the Signet Library. I am particularly grateful to James Hamilton, Research Principal. x

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 10

27/02/23 6:13 PM

acknowledgments • The National Records of Scotland for permission to refer to, and quote from, material in eighteenth-century Court of Session and High Court of Justiciary records. • The Stair Society for permission to refer to, and quote from, material in my two-volume edition of The Legal Papers of James Boswell, published by the Stair Society in 2013 and 2016, in respect of which the Stair Society owns the copyright. My thanks go in particular to Mark Godfrey, Literary Director of the Stair Society. • The Manx National Heritage Library and Archives for permission to refer to, and quote from, certain manuscripts held in the Manuscript Archive. Although this work reflects in various ways the help I have received from others, I alone am responsible for any errors or shortcomings. Finally, I am, as always, immensely grateful to my wife, Odell, who assisted with proof-reading, provided much valuable constructive criticism and helped me avoid some pitfalls. I am more indebted to her than I can say. H.M.M. Edinburgh January 2023

xi

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 11

27/02/23 6:13 PM

Dedicated by the editor to his granddaughters, Odell-May and Rosalind, who both provided much amusement during the preparation of this volume.

xii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 12

27/02/23 6:13 PM

note on the texts This volume includes all papers listed in Section J (Journals of James Boswell) in the Catalogue of the Private Papers of James Boswell at Yale University, ed. Marion S. Pottle, Claude Colleer Abbott and Frederick A. Pottle, 3 vols., 1993, Vol. 1, pp. 8–10, covering the period from the autumn of 1766 to May 1769. Those papers include certain notes by Boswell for his journal during parts of that period and certain memoranda, casual notes and jottings. References in this volume to the journals covered by the volume are therefore to be understood in that light. This volume also includes passages in Boswell’s Life of Johnson which must have been taken from Boswell’s journal for the relevant period but survive only in the Life of Johnson. Where this occurs – namely, in respect of the entry for 7 June 1768 – the text reflects what is presumed to be the first draft as shown in James Boswell’s Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript, in Four Volumes, Yale Research Edition, Life of Johnson, Vol. 2: 1766–1776, ed. Bruce Redford, with Elizabeth Goldring, 1998.

xiii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 13

27/02/23 6:13 PM

editorial procedures The Texts Transcription In conformity with the plan of the Research Edition, the manuscript documents in this edition have been printed to correspond to the originals as closely as is feasible in the medium of print. Changes have been kept within the limits of the conventions stated here. No change that could affect sense has been made silently. Boswell’s spelling, punctuation and capitalization have been retained. Where punctuation is omitted, and the sentence is difficult to understand without it, the missing punctuation is shown in square brackets. Otherwise no missing punctuation is inserted. Accordingly, for example, the missing apostrophe in ‘youd’ is not supplied. Where a quotation is preceded by a period but a colon in place of the period is necessary for clarity, the colon is placed within square brackets. Dashes after a period (or after a question mark or exclamation mark) have been treated as superfluous and omitted accordingly. Missing periods are supplied at the end of a sentence, except where the sentence ends with an obvious dash. Omitted capitals are supplied after periods. Where both periods and capitals are omitted, they are supplied in square brackets. Nonsensical periods or periods used in a list are treated as commas (and vice versa). Nonsensical dashes are treated as commas. Where the end of a line stands in place of punctuation, a dash in square brackets is added. French accents have been retained as Boswell wrote them.

Abbreviations Abbreviations are retained as written by Boswell. Where the abbreviation is confusing (e.g. ‘Lord Hard’ or ‘Johns’), however, this is expanded, with the expansion shown in square brackets (e.g. ‘Lord Hard[wicke]’ or ‘Johns[on]’). The following abbreviations, contractions, and symbols are expanded as shown: xiv

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 14

27/02/23 6:13 PM

editorial procedures agt and agt. against anoyr another Dr. Doctor (but this is not expanded where used as a title) E Earl fayr father Fayr. Father g against (this symbol, which has a stroke through the ‘g’, is used only in the names of law cases) Ld and Ld. Lord Lop. Lordship oyr other Parlmt and Parlmt. Parliament Sr and Sr. Sir wc. which wt and wt. with yr. your & and &c are retained as Boswell wrote them, but & following a period is changed to ‘And’.

Devices of Emphasis Underlinings for purposes of emphasis are printed in italics.

Quotations Strokes (looking rather like colons or semicolons) which appear before and after quotations in the manuscripts are shown as quotation marks. Primary quotations are indicated by single quotation marks. Omitted quotation marks are supplied where one is introduced and the other is missing at the beginning or end of a passage. Otherwise omitted quotation marks are not supplied.

Interlineations and Marginalia All such insertions are indicated in the notes.

Missing Words and Letters, and Deletions, in the Manuscripts Words and letters missing through a tear in the paper are supplied within angular brackets. Similarly, if a word or passage is uncertain but it is possible to speculate as to its terms, the word or passage as surmised is set out within such brackets. Where a word or passage is indecipherable this is stated in italics within such brackets. Inadvertent omissions are supplied within square brackets. Some deletions are Boswell’s, whether undertaken at the time of writing or a few years later. More are due to censorship by later owners of the manuscripts, chiefly by Lady Talbot of Malahide, who inherited the papers and scored out xv

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 15

27/02/23 6:13 PM

editorial procedures numerous passages before selling the manuscripts in the mid-twentieth century. She did so for reasons of propriety, e.g. to eliminate seemingly risqué descriptions, or from family pride, so as to exclude allusions to madness in Boswell’s ancestors (see Pride and Negligence, pp. 89, 96–97, 101, 110). Most of these deletions, ranging from a few words to paragraphs, have been reconstructed by later Yale editors. Where deleted words have been particularly difficult to decipher, recourse has been had in the present volume to the reconstruction by those editors, and such usage is mentioned in the notes.

The Annotation Footnotes These are intended to elucidate the text and extend the historical, social or cultural frame of reference. Persons mentioned are generally identified on first appearance and afterwards as necessary, with the index supplying other references.

Place Names Place names in the notes follow modern practices.

Tense Boswell’s time of writing is regarded as the present, and events are discussed from his point of view. Accordingly, while the main tense in the notes dealing with Boswell’s experiences is the present, events in the past are presented in the pluperfect (e.g. ‘he had been educated . . .’), but historical facts are presented in the simple past, and future events use the ‘would’ form (e.g. ‘he would become . . .’).

Quotations from Boswell’s Journals In the Introduction, footnotes and other editorial notes, quotations from Boswell’s journals (including memoranda and notes for his journal) not covered by the present volume are taken from published sources, with full citations provided, and are reproduced exactly as printed. In the case of quotations from Marlies K. Danziger’s edition of James Boswell: The Journal of his German and Swiss Travels, 1764 (Yale Research Edition, Journal: Volume 1), Gordon Turnbull’s edition of James Boswell, London Journal 1762–1763, and certain footnotes in the Yale Research Edition Correspondence series, the quotations are from material transcribed conservatively from the original manuscripts, but other quotations are taken from volumes in the Trade Edition series of the Yale Boswell Editions, in which the text was ‘normalized’.

xvi

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 16

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations This list omits the more familiar abbreviations of standard works of reference and periodicals, such as OED and N & Q. Manuscripts in the Boswell Collection held in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University are cited in footnotes by reference to catalogue numbers. AANHS

Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History Society.

Addison

The Matriculation Albums of the University of Glasgow from 1728 to 1858, ed. W. Innes Addison, 1913.

Adelsarchief

D. G. van Epen, ‘Het Geslacht van Aerssen’, Adelsarchief, Jaarboek voorden, Vol. 3, 1902.

Advocates’ Library

Advocates’ Library, Parliament House, Edinburgh.

AE

Andrew Erskine.

AEN

Archives de l’État de Neuchâtel.

Alienated Affections

Leah Leneman, Alienated Affections: The Scottish Experience of Divorce and Separation, 1684–1830, 1998.

Alison’s Principles

Sir Archibald Alison, Principles of the Criminal Law of Scotland, 1832.

Allen

Robert J. Allen, The Clubs of Augustan London, 1967.

Alum. Cant. II

J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part II (1752–1900), 6 vols., 1940–54.

Alum. Dub.

Alumni Dublinenses: A Register of the Students, Graduates, Professors and Provosts of Trinity College in the University of Dublin (1593–1860), ed. George Dames Burtchaell and Thomas Ulick Sadleir, new ed., 1935.

Alum. Oxon.

Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886, 4 vols., 1887–88.

Ancestry

Ancestry website, .

Anderson

John Anderson, Historical and Genealogical Memoirs of the House of Hamilton; with Genealogical Memoirs of the several branches of the family, 1825. xvii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 17

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Anderson, Speeches

William Anderson, The Speeches and Judgement of the Right Honourable The Lords of Council and Session in Scotland, upon The important Cause, His Grace GeorgeJames Duke of Hamilton and others, Pursuers; against Archibald Douglas, Esq; Defender, 1768.

Ann. Reg.

The Annual Register, or A View of the History, Politicks, and Literature, For the Year 1763, 2nd ed., 1765.

Applause

Boswell: The Applause of the Jury, 1782–1785, ed. Irma S. Lustig and Frederick A. Pottle, 1981.

APS

The Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, ed. Cosmo Innes and Thomas Thomson, 12 vols., Record Commission, 1814–75.

Arbuthnot

P. Stewart-Mackenzie Arbuthnot, Memories of the Arbuthnots of Kincardineshire and Aberdeenshire, 1920.

Armstrongs’ Map of Ayrshire

A New Map of Ayrshire, by A. and M. Armstrong, 1775, repr. by AANHS.

Army List

A List of the Officers of the Army, etc. 1756–.

Arniston Memoirs

G. W. T. Omond, The Arniston Memoirs, 1887.

Arnot

Hugo Arnot, The History of Edinburgh, 1779.

AS

Acts of Sederunt of the Lords of Council and Session, from the 15th of January 1553, to the 11th of July 1790, 1790.

AS, 1790–1800

The Acts of Sederunt of the Lords of Council and Session, from the 12th November 1790, to the 11th of March 1800, 1800.

Auch. Fam. Memoirs

Memoirs of the family of Boswell of Auchinleck, by James Boswell [JB’s grandfather], continued by his son Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck, Yale MS. C 338.7.

Ayr

John Strawhorn, The History of Ayr, Royal Burgh and County Town, 1989.

Ayr and Wigton

James Paterson, History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton, 3 vols. in 5 parts, 1863–66.

Ayrshire

Ayrshire at the Time of Burns, ed. A. I. Dunlop and others, 1959.

Ayrshire Notes

Ayrshire Notes, AANHS in association with Ayrshire Federation of Historical Studies, 1991–.

Bach

J. C. Bach, ed. Paul Corneilson, 2016.

Bacon

G. W. Bacon, The A to Z of Victorian London, 1987. xviii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 18

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Bailey

James Boswell, The Hypochondriack, ed. Margery Bailey, 2 vols., 1928.

Bankton

Andrew McDouall, Lord Bankton, An Institute of the Laws of Scotland in Civil Rights, 3 vols., 1751–53, facsimile reprint, The Stair Society, Vols. 41–43, 1993–95.

Barclays

Margaret Ackrill and Leslie Hannah, Barclays: The Business of Banking 1690–1996, 2001.

BDA

Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim and Edward A. Langhans, A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800, Vols. 1–16, 1973–93.

Bebbington

Gillian Bebbington, Street Names of London, 1988.

Beckett

J. C. Beckett, ‘Eighteenth-Century Ireland’, in NHI, pp. xxxix–lxiv.

BEJ

Boswell’s Edinburgh Journals, 1767–1786, ed. Hugh M. Milne, 2001; revised ed., 2003 and 2013.

Bell, 1st ed.

Robert Bell, A Dictionary of the Law of Scotland, 2 vols., 1807–08.

Bell, 3rd ed.

Robert Bell, A Dictionary of the Law of Scotland, 3rd ed., rev. William Bell, 2 vols., 1826.

Bell, ‘Savilian Professors’ Houses’

H. E. Bell, ‘The Savilian Professors’ Houses and Halley’s Observatory at Oxford’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Nov. 1961), pp. 179–86.

Berkshire

Geoffrey Tyack, Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner, Berkshire, 2010.

Bertie

David M. Bertie, Scottish Episcopal Clergy 1689–2000, 2000.

BGBA

The Burgesses and Guild Brethren of Ayr, 1647–1846, ed. Alistair Lindsay and Jean Kennedy, 2002.

BGBG

The Burgesses & Guild Brethren of Glasgow, 1573– 1750, ed. James R. Anderson, SRS, 1925.

BHO

British History Online, .

Black

To the Hebrides: Samuel Johnson’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and James Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, ed. Ronald Black, 2007.

Black Watch

Chronology and Book of Days of the 42nd Royal Highlanders, The Black Watch, from 1729 to 1874, 1874. xix

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 19

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations BOEC

Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, Vols. 1–35, 1908–85.

Boer

Bertil van Boer, Historical Dictionary of Music of the Classical Period, 2012.

Book of Carlaverock

Sir William Fraser, The Book of Carlaverock. Memoirs of the Maxwells, Earls of Nithsdale, Lords Maxwell and Herries, 2 vols., 1873.

Book of Dumfriesshire

James Anderson Russell, The Book of Dumfriesshire: History, Lore, Names, Places, Worthies, 1964.

Boswell, ‘Memoires’

James Boswell, ‘Memoires of James Boswell, Esq.’, Eur. Mag. 19 (1791), pp. 323–26 and 404–07 (repr. in Lit. Car. pp. xxix–xliv).

Boswell’s Books

Terry I. Seymour, Boswell’s Books: Four Generations of Collecting and Collectors, 2016.

Boulton and McLoughlin

James Boswell, An Account of Corsica, The Journal of a Tour to That Island, and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli, ed. James T. Boulton and T. O. McLoughlin, 2006.

BP

The Private Papers of James Boswell from Malahide Castle in the Collection of Lt.-Colonel Ralph Heyward Isham, ed. Geoffrey Scott and F. A. Pottle, 18 vols., 1928–34; index, 1937.

BPUN

Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Neuchâtel.

BRB

Charles Rogers, The Book of Robert Burns, 3 vols., 1889.

Brewer

E. Cobham Brewer, Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, rev. John Ayto, 17th ed., 2005.

British Essays

James Boswell (with others), British Essays in Favour of the Brave Corsicans, 1769 (actually published Dec. 1768).

Brown

Rhona Brown, ‘“Rebellious Highlanders”: The Reception of Corsica in the Edinburgh Periodical Press, 1730–1800’, Studies in Scottish Literature, Vol. 41, Iss. 1 (2016), pp. 108–28.

Bruin

Renger E. de Bruin, ‘The Narrow Escape of the Teutonic Order Bailiwick of Utrecht, 1811–1815’, in The Military Orders, Vol. 6.2, Culture and Conflict in Western and Northern Europe, ed. Jochen Schenk and Mike Carr, 2019, pp. 222–32.

Buckinghamshire

Nikolaus Pevsner, Elizabeth Williamson and Geoffrey K. Brandwood, Buckinghamshire, 1994.

Burke’s Landed Gentry

John Burke and John Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, 2 vols., 1847. xx

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 20

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Burke’s Landed Gentry, Sir Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History 6th ed. of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, 6th ed., 2 vols., 1879. Burke’s Landed Gentry, Burke’s Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed 17th ed. Gentry, 17th ed., ed. L. G. Pine, 1952. Burke’s LGI

Sir Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland, new ed., 1912.

Burke’s LGS

Burke’s Landed Gentry of Scotland, 19th ed., Vol. 1, The Kingdom of Scotland, 2001.

Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed.

Sir Bernard Burke and Ashworth P. Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, The Privy Council, and Knightage, 89th ed., 1931.

Burke’s Peerage, 107th ed.

Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage: Clan Chiefs, Scottish Feudal Barons, ed. Charles Mosley and others, 107th ed., 3 vols., 2003.

Burleigh

John H. S. Burleigh, A Church History of Scotland, 1960.

Butler

Rev. D. Butler, The Tron Kirk of Edinburgh, or Christ’s Kirk at the Tron: A History, 1906.

Butt

The Poems of Alexander Pope, ed. John Butt, 1963.

Cairncross History

A. F. and B. L. Cairncross, Cairncross: The History of a Scottish Family, 1959, Ch. XII, ‘The Cairncrosses of Calfhill or Hillslope’, pp. 66–84 (from Cairncross family website, .

Cairns, ‘Legal Study John W. Cairns, ‘Legal Study in Utrecht in the Late in Utrecht in the Late 1740s: The Education of Sir David Dalrymple, Lord 1740s’ Hailes’, in Summa Eloquentia: Essays in Honour of Margaret Hewett, ed. Rena van den Bergh, University of South Africa, 2002, pp. 30–74. Cairns, ‘Slavery and the Roman Law of Evidence in Eighteenth-Century Scotland’

John W. Cairns, ‘Slavery and the Roman Law of Evidence in Eighteenth-Century Scotland’, in Mapping the Law: Essays in Memory of Peter Birks, ed. Andrew Burrows and Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, 2006, pp. 599–618.

Cal. Merc.

The Caledonian Mercury, 1720–1867.

Campbell

John Lord Campbell, The Lives of the Chief Justices of England. From the Norman Conquest till the Death of Lord Mansfield, 2 vols., 1849.

Carlyle

The Autobiography of Dr Alexander Carlyle of Inveresk 1722–1805, new ed., ed. John Hill Burton, 1910. xxi

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 21

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Carnie

Robert Hay Carnie, Scottish Printers and Booksellers 1668–1775: A Second Supplement, 1962.

Carruthers Family

Records of the Carruthers Family, compiled by A. Stanley Carruthers and R. C. Reid, 1934.

Cassell’s Edinburgh

James Grant, Cassell’s Old and New Edinburgh, 3 vols., 1881–83.

Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire

A. H. Millar, Historical and Descriptive Accounts of the Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire, 1885.

Catalogue

Marion S. Pottle, Claude Colleer Abbott and Frederick A. Pottle, Catalogue of the Private Papers of James Boswell at Yale University, 3 vols., 1993.

CCED

Clergy of the Church of England Database, .

CDVT

Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785.

Ch. Scots Dict.

Chambers’s Scots Dictionary, 1911, repr. 1968.

Chambers

Robert Chambers, Traditions of Edinburgh, new ed., 1868.

Chartres

John Chartres, ‘A Special Crop and its Markets in the Eighteenth Century: The Case of Pontefract’s Liquorice’, in People, Landscape and Alternative Agriculture: Essays for Joan Thirsk, ed. R. W. Hoyle, The Agricultural History Review Supplement series 3, British Agricultural History Society, 2004, pp. 113–32.

Checkland

Sydney George Checkland, Scottish Banking: A History, 1695–1973, 1975.

Circuit Journeys

Henry Cockburn, Circuit Journeys, 1983.

Clan MacFarlane

Clan MacFarlane and associated clans genealogy website, .

Clapinson

Mary Clapinson, A Brief History of the Bodleian Library, 2015.

Cloyd

E. L. Cloyd, James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, 1972.

Cockburn

Henry Cockburn, Memorials of His Time, 1910.

College of Justice

George Brunton and David Haig, An Historical Account of the Senators of the College of Justice, 1832.

Commissariot of Edinburgh

The Commissariot of Edinburgh: Consistorial Processes and Decreets, 1658–1800, ed. Sir Francis J. Grant, SRS, Vol. 34, 1909. xxii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 22

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Comp. Bar.

Complete Baronetage, ed. G. E. C[okayne], 5 vols., 1900–06; index, 1909.

Comp. Peer.

Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, ed. G. E. C[okayne], rev. Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday and others, 13 vols., 1910–59.

Consultation Book

Boswell’s Consultation Book, 1766–72 (MS., held in the NLS (Adv.MS.3.1.10)).

Cooper

Janet Cooper, ‘Medieval Oxford’, in HCO 4, pp. 3–73.

Corr. 1

The Correspondence of James Boswell and John Johnston of Grange, ed. Ralph S. Walker, 1966 (Yale Research Edition, Correspondence: Volume 1).

Corr. 3

The Correspondence of James Boswell with Certain Members of The Club, ed. Charles N. Fifer, 1976 (Yale Research Edition, Correspondence: Volume 3).

Corr. 4

The Correspondence of James Boswell with David Garrick, Edmund Burke, and Edmond Malone, ed. P. S. Baker, T. W. Copeland, G. M. Kahrl, Rachel McClellan and J. M. Osborn, 1986 (Yale Research Edition, Correspondence: Volume 4).

Corr. 5

The General Correspondence of James Boswell, 1766– 1769, Vol. 1: 1766–1767, ed. Richard C. Cole, with Peter S. Baker and Rachel McClellan, and with the assistance of James J. Caudle, 1993 (Yale Research Edition, Correspondence: Volume 5).

Corr. 6

The Correspondence of James Boswell and William Johnson Temple, 1756–1795, Vol. 1: 1756–1777, ed. Thomas Crawford, 1997 (Yale Research Edition, Correspondence: Volume 6).

Corr. 7

The General Correspondence of James Boswell, 1766– 1769, Vol. 2: 1768–1769, ed. Richard C. Cole, with Peter S. Baker and Rachel McClellan, and with the assistance of James J. Caudle, 1997 (Yale Research Edition, Correspondence: Volume 7).

Corr. 8

The Correspondence of James Boswell with James Bruce and Andrew Gibb, Overseers of the Auchinleck Estate, ed. Nellie Pottle Hankins and John Strawhorn, 1998 (Yale Research Edition, Correspondence: Volume 8).

Corr. 9

The General Correspondence of James Boswell, 1757– 1763, ed. David Hankins and James J. Caudle, 2006 (Yale Research Edition, Correspondence: Volume 9). xxiii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 23

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Corr. 10

The Correspondence of James Boswell and Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, ed. Richard B. Sher, 2021 (Yale Research Edition, Correspondence: Volume 10).

Corres. Dodsley

The Correspondence of Robert Dodsley 1733–1764, ed. James E. Tierney, 2004.

Corres. HW

The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, ed. W. S. Lewis and others, 48 vols., 1937–83.

Corsica

James Boswell, An Account of Corsica, the Journal of a Tour to That Island, and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli, 3rd ed., 1769.

Courtney

C. P. Courtney, Isabelle de Charrière (Belle de Zuylen): A Biography, 1993.

Coventry

Martin Coventry, Castles of the Clans: The Strongholds and Seats of 750 Scottish Families and Clans, 2008.

Craine

David Craine, ‘A Manx Merchant of the Eighteenth Century’, Proceedings of the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society, Vol. 4, 1939, pp. 640ff.

Craster

H. H. E. Craster, A History of Northumberland, Vol. viii, ‘The Parish of Tynemouth’, 1907.

Crawford

Robert Crawford, Scotland’s Books: A History of Scottish Literature, 2009.

Crit. Rev.

The Critical Review, 1756–1817.

Crone

G. R. Crone, ‘John Green. Notes on a Neglected Eighteenth Century Geographer and Cartographer’, Imago Mundi, 1949, Vol. 6, pp. 85–91.

Crossley

A. Crossley, ‘Early Modern Oxford’, in HCO 4, pp. 74–180.

Cruden

Stewart Cruden, The Scottish Castle, 3rd ed., 1981.

Cruickshank

Dan Cruickshank, The Secret History of Georgian London: How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital, 2009.

Cruickshanks, Handley and Hayton

The House of Commons 1690–1715, ed. Eveline Cruickshanks, Stuart Handley and D. W. Hayton, 5 vols., 2002.

CSD

The Concise Scots Dictionary, ed. Mairi Robinson and others, 2005.

Cullen

The Hon. Lord Cullen, Parliament House, A Short History and Guide, 1992. xxiv

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 24

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Curley

Thomas M. Curley, ‘Boswell’s Liberty-Loving Account of Corsica and the Art of Travel Literature’, in New Light on Boswell, ed. Greg Clingham, 1991, pp. 89–103.

Cust

Lionel Cust, A History of Eton College, 1899.

Cuthell

Edith E. Cuthell, The Scottish Friend of Frederick the Great, 2 vols., 1915.

Davis

Michael C. Davis, The Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire, 1991.

Dawn of the Roman Empire

Livy, The Dawn of the Roman Empire, Books Thirtyone to Forty, trans. J. C. Yardley with an introduction and notes by Waldemar Heckel, 2000.

Day

C. J. Day, ‘Communications’, in HCO 4, pp. 284–95.

Defence

Boswell for the Defence, 1769–1774, ed. W. K. Wimsatt and F. A. Pottle, 1959.

Dibdin

James C. Dibdin, The Annals of the Edinburgh Stage, 1888.

Dickson

John M. Dickson, ‘The Colville Family in Ulster’, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 1899, Vol. 5, pp. 139–45, 202–10.

Dict. SJ

Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, 6th ed., 2 vols., 1785.

Dobson

David Dobson, Scots in the West Indies, 1707–1857, 2 vols., 1998–2006.

Donachie

Ian L. Donachie, A History of the Brewing Industry in Scotland, 1979.

Donaldson’s Collection A Collection of Original Poems by the Rev. Mr. Blacklock and other Scotch Gentlemen, 1760 (‘Vol. I’); A Collection of Original Poems by Scotch Gentlemen, 1762 (‘Vol. II’). Douglas Cause

The Douglas Cause, ed. A. F. Steuart, 1909.

Douglas’s Baronage

The Baronage of Scotland, ed. Sir Robert Douglas, 1798.

Douglas’s Peerage

The Peerage of Scotland . . ., 2nd ed., ed. Sir Robert Douglas, rev. John Philip Wood, 2 vols., 1813.

DPB

H. R. Plomer, G. H. Bushnell and E. R. McC. Dix, A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers who were at work in England Scotland and Ireland from 1726 to 1775, 1932.

DSCHT

Dictionary of Scottish Church History & Theology, ed. Nigel M. de S. Cameron, 1993. xxv

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 25

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations DSL

Dictionary of the Scots Language, ed. Susan Rennie, website (comprising electronic editions of Sir William A. Craigie’s 12-volume Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue, 1937–2002 (‘DOST’), and the 10-volume Scottish National Dictionary, ed. William Grant, 1931–76 (‘SND’)).

Dublin Dir.

Wilson’s Dublin Directory, 1765–1772.

Dunbar

John G. Dunbar, The Architecture of Scotland, 1966.

Earlier Years

Frederick A. Pottle, James Boswell: The Earlier Years, 1740–1769, 1966, repr. 1985.

Early Diary FB

The Early Diary of Frances Burney, 1768–1778, ed. A. R. Ellis, 2 vols., 1889.

EB

Encyclopædia Britannica, 24 vols., 1967.

Edin. Alm.

The Edinburgh Almanack, 1766–.

Edin. Even. Courant

The Edinburgh Evening Courant, 1718–1859.

Edin. Mag.

The Edinburgh Magazine, or Literary Miscellany, 1785–1803; The Edinburgh Magazine, and Literary Miscellany, 1817–26.

Emerson

Roger L. Emerson, Academic Patronage in the Scottish Enlightenment, 2008.

Erskine’s Institute

John Erskine of Carnock, An Institute of the Law of Scotland in Four Books. In the Order of Sir George Mackenzie’s Institutions of that Law, 2 vols., 1773.

Erskine’s Principles

John Erskine of Carnock, The Principles of the Law of Scotland: In the Order of Sir George Mackenzie’s Institutions of that Law, 3rd ed., 1764.

Essence

James Boswell, The Essence of the Douglas Cause, 1767.

ESTC

English Short Title Catalogue (online database).

Eur. Mag.

The European Magazine, 1782–1826.

EWPBH

Exeter Working Papers in Book History, .

Experiment

Boswell: The English Experiment, 1785–1789, ed. I. S. Lustig and F. A. Pottle, 1986.

Extremes

Boswell in Extremes, 1776–1778, ed. Charles McC. Weis and F. A. Pottle, 1970.

Fac. Adv.

The Faculty of Advocates in Scotland, 1532–1943, ed. Sir Francis J. Grant, SRS, 1944. xxvi

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 26

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Facts and Inventions

Facts and Inventions: Selections from the Journalism of James Boswell, ed. Paul Tankard with the assistance of Lisa Marr, 2014.

Faculty Decisions

Decisions of the Court of Session, from 1752 to 1808, collected by appointment of the Faculty of Advocates, 14 vols., 1760–1809.

Fallow

T. M. Fallow, A Short History of the Family of Murdoch of Cumloden, 1905.

Farmer

J. S. Farmer, Regimental Records of the British Army, 1901.

Fasti Hib.

Henry Cotton, Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae, The Succession of the Prelates and Members of the Cathedral Bodies of Ireland, 5 vols., 1847–60.

Fasti Scot.

Hew Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, 8 vols., 1915–50.

Faulkner

Thomas Faulkner, An Historical and Topographical Description of Chelsea, and its Environs, 2 vols., 1829.

Fauvel, ‘Georgian Oxford’

John Fauvel, ‘Georgian Oxford’, Ch. 9 of Oxford Figures: 800 Years of the Mathematical Sciences, ed. John Fauvel, Raymond Flood and Robin Wilson, 2000.

Ferguson

William Ferguson, ‘The Electoral System in the Scottish Counties before 1832’, in Miscellany Two, 1984, pp. 261–94 (The Stair Society, Vol. 35).

Findmypast

Findmypast website, .

Finlay

Admission Register of Notaries Public in Scotland, 1700–1799, compiled, with an introduction, by John Finlay, SRS, 2 vols., 2012.

Fitzsimmons

Linda Fitzsimmons, ‘The Theatre Royal, York’, York History, No. 4, pp. 169–190.

Forbes

William Forbes, A Journal of the Session, 1714.

Fortunes of a Family

Lady Macdonald of the Isles, The Fortunes of a Family (Bosville of New Hall, Gunthwaite and Thorpe) through Nine Centuries, 1927.

Fry

Michael Fry, The Dundas Despotism, 1992.

Gasper

Julia Gasper, Theodore von Neuhoff, King of Corsica: The Man behind the Legend, 2013.

GD

George Dempster.

Genealogy Online

Genealogy Online website, . xxvii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 27

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Gent. and Cit. Alm.

John Watson, The Gentleman and Citizen’s Almanack (afterwards The Gentleman’s and Citizen’s Almanack), 1737–98.

Gent. Mag.

The Gentleman’s Magazine, ed. Edward Cave and others, 1731–1907.

George

M. Dorothy George, London Life in the XVIIIth Century, 1925.

George III

J. Steven Watson, The Reign of George III, 1760–1815, 1960.

Gib

Adam Gib, The Present Truth: A Display of the Secession-Testimony; in the Three Periods of the Rise, State, and Maintenance of that Testimony, 2 vols., 1774.

Gibbon

Autobiography of Edward Gibbon, ed. Lord Sheffield, 1922(?).

Gibson

William Gibson, The Farriers Dispensatory, 1721.

Gifford

John Gifford, The Buildings of Scotland: Dumfries and Galloway, 1996.

Goldsmith

John Forster, The Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, 2 vols., 1888.

Graham, SLSEC

Henry Grey Graham, The Social Life of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century, 2nd ed., 1901, repr. 1909.

Graham, SML

Henry Grey Graham, Scottish Men of Letters in the Eighteenth Century, 1908.

Grand Tour I

Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland, 1764, ed. F. A. Pottle, 1953.

Grand Tour II

Boswell on the Grand Tour: Italy, Corsica and France, 1765–1766, ed. Frank Brady and F. A. Pottle, 1955.

Gray

W. Forbes Gray, Historic Churches of Edinburgh, 1940.

Gray’s Works

The Works of Thomas Gray, ed. John Mitford, 2 vols., 1816.

Great Biographer

Boswell: The Great Biographer, 1789–1795, ed. Marlies K. Danziger and Frank Brady, 1989.

Grose

Francis Grose, The Antiquities of Scotland, 2 vols., 1797.

Grose, ‘County of Down’

Francis Grose, ‘County of Down’, in The Antiquities of Ireland, 2 vols., 1791, Vol. 1.

Gurnall

William Gurnall, The Christian in Compleat Armour: or, a Treatise of the Saints War against the Devil, 8th ed., 1768. xxviii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 28

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations HACY

The History and Antiquities of the City of York, from its Origin to the Present Times, 3 vols., 1785.

Hailes’s Decisions

Decisions of the Lords of Council and Session from 1766 to 1791, collected by Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, 2 vols., 1826.

Hamilton of Bangour

The Poems and Songs of William Hamilton of Bangour; collated with the MS. volume of his poems, and containing several pieces hitherto unpublished; with illustrative notes, and an account of the life of the author by James Paterson, 1850.

Hardenbroek

G. J. van Hardenbroek, Gedenkschiften, 1747–88, ed. F. J. L. Krämer, 1901.

Harris

James A. Harris, Hume: An Intellectual Biography, 2015.

Harvest Jaunt

Journal of My Jaunt, Harvest 1762, in Boswell’s London Journal, 1762–1763, together with Journal of My Jaunt, Harvest 1762, prepared for the press, with introduction and notes by Frederick A. Pottle, 1951, pp. 43–111.

HCO 3

The Victoria History of the County of Oxford, Vol. 3, The University of Oxford, ed. H. E. Salter and Mary D. Lobel, 1954.

HCO 4

History of the County of Oxford, Vol. 4, The City of Oxford, ed. Alan Crossley, 1979.

Hebrides

Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson LL.D., 1773, ed. from the original MS. by F. A. Pottle and C. H. Bennett, 2nd. ed., 1961.

Hennessy

George Hennessy, Novum Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense or London Diocesan Clergy Succession from the Earliest Time to the Year 1898, 1898.

Heward

Edmund Heward, Lord Mansfield, 1979.

Hill

B. J. W. Hill, A History of Eton College, 1953.

Historic Monuments

Historic Monuments of Northern Ireland: An Introduction and Guide, 6th ed., 1983.

Hodgson

John Hodgson, A History of Northumberland, Part 2, Vol. 2, 1832.

Holland

Boswell in Holland, 1763–1764, ed. F. A. Pottle, 1952.

Horwood

Richard Horwood, A to Z of Regency London, 1985.

Houghton Library

Houghton Library, Harvard University. xxix

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 29

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations House of Gordon

The House of Gordon, ed. John Malcolm Bulloch, 1903.

Hume

David Hume, Commentaries on the Law of Scotland Respecting Crimes, 2nd ed., 2 vols., 1819.

IMPR

Isle of Man Parish Records, .

Ingamells

John Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701–1800, Compiled from the Brinsley Ford Archive, 1997.

Inglis

Lucy Inglis, Georgian London Into the Streets, 2013.

IRBCR

Index to the Register of Burials in the Churchyard of Restalrig 1728–1854, ed. Sir Francis J. Grant, SRS, Vol. 32, 1908.

Ives

Sidney Ives, ‘Boswell Argues a Cause: Smith, Steel, and “Actio Redhibitoria”’, in Eighteenth-century Studies in Honor of Donald F. Hyde, ed. W. H. Bond, 1970, pp. 257–65.

Jackson

Michael Jackson’s Malt Whisky Companion: A Connoisseur’s Guide to the Malt Whiskies of Scotland, 1989.

Jamieson, ‘Sedan Chair in Edinburgh’

James H. Jamieson, ‘The Sedan Chair in Edinburgh’, in BOEC, Vol. 9, pp. 177–234.

Jamieson, ‘Some Inns of the Eighteenth Century’

James H. Jamieson, ‘Some Inns of the Eighteenth Century’, in BOEC, Vol. 14, pp. 121–46.

JAPMDI

Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead in Ireland, 1892–1920.

JB

James Boswell.

Jervise

Andrew Jervise, Epitaphs & Inscriptions from Burial Grounds & Old Buildings in the North-East of Scotland, 2 vols., 1875–79.

JHC

Journals of the House of Commons.

JHL

Journals of the House of Lords.

JJ

John Johnston of Grange.

Johnston-Liik

Edith Mary Johnston-Liik, History of the Irish Parliament 1692–1800: Commons, Constituencies and Statutes, 6 vols., 2002.

Journ.

JB’s journal.

Journ. 1

James Boswell: The Journal of his German and Swiss Travels, 1764, ed. Marlies K. Danziger, 2008 (Yale Research Edition, Journal: Volume 1). xxx

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 30

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Journey to the Western Islands

Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 2 vols., 1775.

Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires

Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires, transl. with introduction and notes by Peter Green, 3rd ed., 1998.

Kaminski

Thomas Kaminski, The Early Career of Samuel Johnson, 1987.

Kay

John Kay, A Series of Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings, new ed., 2 vols., 1877.

Keay and Keay

Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland, ed. John Keay and Julia Keay, 1994.

Kendal

Roger Kendal, ‘Humphrey Gainsborough, Minister of the Independent Chapel, Rotherfield Greys’, Journal of the Henley Archaeological & Historical Group, No. 19, Winter 2004, pp. 1–14.

Kent’s Dir.

Kent’s Directory, 1745–1816.

Kirkpatrick of Closeburn

Richard Godman Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, 1858.

Knox

Alexander Knox, A History of the County of Down, From the Most Remote Period to the Present Day, 1875.

Laird

Boswell: Laird of Auchinleck, 1778–1782, ed. Joseph W. Reed and F. A. Pottle, 1977, repr. 1993.

LAP

The Laws and Acts of Parliament, 3 vols., duodecimo ed., Vols. 1–2 (collected by Sir Thomas Murray of Glendook), 1682; Vol. 3 (various collectors), 1731.

Later Years

Frank Brady, James Boswell: The Later Years, 1769– 1795, 1984.

Lawson

John Parker Lawson, History of the Scottish Episcopal Church from the Revolution to the Present Time, 1843.

Leask

The Oxford Edition of the Works of Robert Burns, ed. Nigel Leask, Vol. 1, 2014.

Lee

Albert Lee, History of the Thirty-third Foot, 1922.

Leeming

Jonathan Leeming, Scorpions of Southern Africa, 2003.

Lees

J. Cameron Lees, St Giles’, Edinburgh: Church, College, and Cathedral: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day, 1889.

Leneman, ‘“Prophaning” The Lord’s Day’

Leah Leneman, ‘“Prophaning” The Lord’s Day: Sabbath Breach in Early Modern Scotland’, History, June 1989, Vol. 74, No. 241, pp. 217–31. xxxi

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 31

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Leonard

Dick Leonard, Eighteenth-Century British Premiers: Walpole to the Younger Pitt, 2011.

LEP

Samuel Johnson, The Lives of the English Poets, 1825.

Leslie and Swanzy

James B. Leslie and Henry B. Swanzy, Biographical Succession Lists of the Clergy of Diocese of Down, 1936.

Letters DH

The Letters of David Hume, ed. J. Y. T. Greig, 2 vols., 1932.

Letters GD

Letters of George Dempster to Sir Adam Fergusson, 1756–1813: with some account of his life, ed. James Fergusson, 1934.

Letters JB

Letters of James Boswell, ed. Chauncey Brewster Tinker, 2 vols., 1924.

Letters of Lady Jane Douglas

Letters of The Right Honourable Lady Jane Douglas, ed. James Boswell, 1767.

Letters on Demonology

Sir Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, ed. Henry Morley, 2nd ed., 1885.

Letters SJ

The Letters of Samuel Johnson, ed. Bruce Redford, 5 vols., 1992–94.

Life

Boswell’s Life of Johnson, Together with Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson’s Diary of a Journey into North Wales, ed. G. B. Hill, rev. L. F. Powell, 6 vols., 1934–50; vols. v and vi, 2nd ed. 1964.

Life MS ii

James Boswell’s Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript, in Four Volumes, Yale Research Edition, Life of Johnson, Vol. 2: 1766–1776, ed. Bruce Redford, with Elizabeth Goldring, 1998.

Linebaugh

P. Linebaugh, ‘The Ordinary of Newgate and his Account’, in Crime in England 1550–1800, ed. J. S. Cockburn, 1977, pp. 246–69.

Lit. Anec.

John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, 9 vols., 1812–15.

Lit. Car.

Frederick A. Pottle, The Literary Career of James Boswell, Esq., 1929.

LJ 1762–63

James Boswell, London Journal 1762–1763, ed. Gordon Turnbull, 2010.

Lond. Chron.

The London Chronicle, 1757–1823.

Lond. Coffee Houses

Bryant Lillywhite, London Coffee Houses, 1963.

Lond. Mag.

The London Magazine, 1732–85. xxxii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 32

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Lond. Past and Present

Henry B. Wheatley, London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, 3 vols., 1891.

Lond. Signs

Bryant Lillywhite, London Signs: A Reference Book of London Signs from Earliest Times to About the MidNineteenth Century, 1972.

Lond. Stage

The London Stage, 1600–1800, ed. C. B. Hogan and others, 5 pts. in 11 vols., 1965–68, index 1979.

Love

Dane Love, The History of Auchinleck – Village & Parish, 2015.

Low

James G. Low, John Coutts, or Notes on an Eminent Montrose Family, 1892.

LPE

Marguerite Wood, The Lord Provosts of Edinburgh, 1296–1932, 1932.

LPJB 1

The Legal Papers of James Boswell, Vol. 1: in relation to cases in which Boswell first became involved in the period 29 July 1766 to 11 November 1767, ed. Hugh M. Milne, 2013 (The Stair Society, Vol. 60).

LPJB 2

The Legal Papers of James Boswell, Vol. 2: in relation to cases in which Boswell first became involved in the period 12 November 1767 to 11 November 1769, ed. Hugh M. Milne, 2016 (The Stair Society, Vol. 63).

LWRB

The Life and Works of Robert Burns, ed. Robert Chambers, rev. William Wallace, 4 vols., 1896.

Lyte

Maxwell Lyte, A History of Eton College, 1440–1875, 1875.

Macaulay

James Macaulay, The Classical Country House in Scotland, 1660–1800, 1987.

McClure, ‘James McAdam’

David Courtney McClure, ‘James McAdam and the Loss of Waterhead’, Ayrshire Notes, No. 33, Spring 2007, pp. 7–20.

McClure, Tolls and Tacksmen

David McClure, Tolls and Tacksmen: Eighteenth Century Roads in the County of John Loudon McAdam, AANHS monograph, 1994.

McClure, ‘William Logan’

David McClure, ‘William Logan of Castlemains’, Ayrshire Notes, No. 5, Autumn 1993, pp. 2–7.

McCracken

J. L. McCracken, ‘The Social Structure and Social Life, 1714–60’, in NHI, pp. 31–56.

McCrae

Morrice McCrae, Saving the Army: The Life of Sir John Pringle, 2014. xxxiii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 33

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations McCrie

Thomas McCrie, The Life of John Knox, 3rd ed., 2 vols., 1814.

McDowall

William McDowall, History of the Burgh of Dumfries: with Notes of Nithsdale, Annandale, and the Western Border, 3rd ed., 1906.

MacFarlane

James MacFarlane, History of Clan MacFarlane, 1922.

MacGibbon and Ross

David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross, The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, from the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Century, 5 vols., 1887–92.

McKay

Archibald McKay, The History of Kilmarnock, 2nd ed., 1858.

Mackenzie

W. Mackay Mackenzie, The Mediaeval Castle in Scotland, 1927.

McKerlie

P. H. McKerlie, History of the Lands and Their Owners in Galloway, 5 vols., 1870–79.

Mackinnon

Colonel Mackinnon, Origin and Services of the Coldstream Guards, 2 vols., 1833.

Macky

John Macky, A Journey Through Scotland. In familiar letters from a gentleman here, to his friend abroad, 2nd ed., 1729.

Maclaurin

John Maclaurin, Arguments, and Decisions, in Remarkable Cases, before the High Court of Justiciary, and Other Supreme Courts, in Scotland, 1774.

McWilliam

Colin McWilliam, The Buildings of Scotland: Lothian except Edinburgh, 1980.

Maitland

William Maitland, The History of Edinburgh from its Foundation to the Present Time, 1753.

Mant

Richard Mant, History of the Church of Ireland From the Revolution to the Union of the Churches of England and Ireland, January 1, 1801, 1840.

MBFA

The Minute Book of the Faculty of Advocates, Vol. 3: 1751–83, ed. Angus Stewart, 1999 (The Stair Society, Vol. 46).

Mem.

JB’s memoranda.

Memorial for Archibald Douglas and others

Memorial for Archibald Douglas of Douglas, Esq; and for Margaret Dutchess of Douglas, and Charles Duke of Queensberry and Dover, his Curators, Defenders; against George-James Duke of Hamilton, Lord Douglas Hamilton, and their Tutors, and Sir Hew Dalrymple of Northberwick, Baronet, Pursuers, signed by Ilay Campbell, 1766, ESTC T136402. xxxiv

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 34

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Memorial for the Duke of Hamilton and others

Memorial for George-James Duke of Hamilton, Marquis of Douglas, Earl of Angus, &c. Lord Douglas Hamilton, and their Tutors, and Sir Hew Dalrymple of North-berwick, Baronet, Pursuers, Against The person pretending to be Archibald Stewart, alias Douglas, only son now in life of the marriage between Colonel John Stewart, afterwards Sir John Stewart of Grandtully, and Lady Jane Douglas, sister-german of Archibald Duke of Douglas, Defender, signed by Sir Adam Fergusson, 1767, ESTC T118950.

Miller

R. Miller, The Municipal Buildings of Edinburgh, 1145–1895, 1895.

MM

Margaret Montgomerie.

Montgomery and Rowntree Families and Genealogy

Montgomery and Rowntree Families and Genealogy website, .

Moodie Book

The Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval, The Moodie Book, Being an Account of the Families of Melsetter, Muir, Cocklaw . . . etc., 1906.

Morison’s Dictionary

William Maxwell Morison, The Decisions of the Court of Session from its institution until the separation of the Court into two divisions in the year 1808, digested under proper heads, in the form of a dictionary, 19 vols., 1811.

Mortimer

Thomas Mortimer, The Universal Director, or, The Nobleman and Gentleman’s True Guide to the Masters and Professors of the Liberal and Polite Arts and Sciences, 1763.

Moss

Michael Moss, The Duel between Sir Alexander Boswell and James Stuart: Scottish Squibs and Pistols at Dawn, 2019.

MS

Robin Smith, The Making of Scotland, 2001.

Munk

The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London, ed. William Munk, 2nd ed., 5 vols., 1878–1968.

Munros

The Munros: The Scottish Mountaineering Club Hillwalkers’ Guide, ed. Donald Bennet, 1985.

Murray

John Murray, ‘Some Civil Cases of James Boswell, 1772–74’, The Juridical Review, Vol. 52, 1940, pp. 222–51.

MWG

The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, 2 vols., 1834.

Namier and Brooke

Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke, The House of Commons 1754–1790, 3 vols., 1964. xxxv

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 35

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations National Archives Discovery

.

New Stat. Acct. Scot.

The New Statistical Account of Scotland, 15 vols., 1845.

NHI

A New History of Ireland, Vol. 4, Eighteenth-Century Ireland 1691–1800, ed. T. W. Moody and W. E. Vaughan, 1986.

Nickerson

The New England Freemason, ed. Sereno D. Nickerson, 2 vols., 1874–75.

NLS

National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Notes

JB’s notes for his journal.

NRS

National Records of Scotland, HM General Register House, Edinburgh.

OC Rousseau

Œuvres Complètes de J.-J. Rousseau, ed. B. Gagnebin et al. Pléiade ed., 5 vols., 1959–95.

OGS

Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, ed. Francis H. Groome, 6 vols., 1882–85.

Old and New Lond.

Walter Thornbury, Old and New London: A Narrative of its History, its People, and its Places, rev. ed., 6 vols., 1883–85?

Old Bailey Proceedings

Old Bailey Proceedings Online, .

Old Lond. Churches

Elizabeth Young and Wayland Young, Old London Churches, 1956.

Ominous Years

Boswell: The Ominous Years, 1774–1776, ed. Charles Ryskamp and F. A. Pottle, 1963.

Omond

George W. T. Omond, The Lord Advocates of Scotland, 2 vols., 1883.

OPRBB

Old Parish Registers - Births and Baptisms, NRS, .

OPRBM

Old Parish Registers - Banns and Marriages, NRS, .

OPRDB

Old Parish Registers - Deaths and Burials, NRS, .

Osborne

Brian D. Osborne, Braxfield the Hanging Judge?, 1997.

Oxford DNB

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Brian Harrison, founding ed. Colin Matthew, 2004.

Oxfordshire

Jennifer Sherwood and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, 1974. xxxvi

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 36

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Parl. Hist.

The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, 36 vols., 1806–20.

Parliamentary Archives

Parliamentary Archives, Palace of Westminster, London.

Parliaments of Scotland

The Parliaments of Scotland: burgh and shire commissioners, gen. ed. Margaret D. Young, 2 vols., 1992–93.

Paterson and Maidment

James Paterson and James Maidment, Kay’s Edinburgh Portraits, 2 vols., 1885.

Payne

W. H. Payne, The History of the Royal Residences of Windsor Castle, St. James’s Palace, Carlton House, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, Buckingham House, and Frogmore, 3 vols., 1819.

Peakman

Julie Peakman, Lascivious Bodies: A Sexual History of the Eighteenth Century, 2004.

Pennant

Thomas Pennant, A Tour in Scotland, and Voyage to the Hebrides; MDCCLXXII, 1774.

Pevsner and Neave

Nikolaus Pevsner and David Neave, Yorkshire: York and the East Riding, 2nd ed., 1995.

Phillips

Hugh Phillips, Mid-Georgian London. A Topographical and Social Survey of Central and Western London about 1750, 1964.

Pittock

Murray Pittock, James Boswell, 2007.

Place Names of Edinburgh

Stuart Harris, The Place Names of Edinburgh: Their Origins and History, 1996.

Pol. Car.

Frank Brady, Boswell’s Political Career, 1965.

Poser

Norman S. Poser, Lord Mansfield: Justice in the Age of Reason, 2013.

Post-Chaise Comp.

The Post-Chaise Companion: or, Traveller’s Directory through Ireland, 1784.

Pottle, ‘Boswell’s Uni- Frederick A. Pottle, ‘Boswell’s University versity Education’ Education’, in Johnson, Boswell and their Circle, 1965, pp. 230–53. Pride and Negligence

Frederick A. Pottle, Pride and Negligence: The History of the Boswell Papers, 1982.

Provosts of Dumfries

.

Pub. Adv.

The Oracle and Public Advertiser, 1752–94.

Quakers

Quakers in the World, website, . xxxvii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 37

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Quammen

David Quammen, Wild Thoughts from Wild Places, 1999.

Radice

The Letters of the Younger Pliny, trans. with an introduction by Betty Radice, 1963, repr. with select bibliography, 1969.

Rambler

Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, 6 vols., 1752.

Rambler, WSJ

The Rambler, The Yale Editions of the Works of Samuel Johnson, ed. W. J. Bate and Albrecht B. Strauss, Vols. 3–5, 1969.

Ramsay

John Ramsay of Ochtertyre, Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Alexander Allardyce, 2 vols., 1888.

RBP

Records of the Burgh of Prestwick, 1470–1782, ed. J. Fullerton, Maitland Club No. 27, 1834.

RCAHMCS, Seventh Report

The Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments & Constructions of Scotland, Seventh Report, with Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of Dumfries, 1920.

RCAHMS

Canmore search facility on the website of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, .

REBGB, 1701–1760

Roll of Edinburgh Burgesses and Guild-Brethren, 1701– 1760, ed. Charles B. Boog Watson, SRS, 1930.

Reg. Adm. Middle Temple

Register of Admissions to the Middle Temple, Online: 1651–1750: ; 1751–1850: .

Reg. Let.

JB’s register of letters sent and received (Yale MS. M 251–55).

Reg. Maj.

Regiam Majestatem and Quoniam Attachiamenta, ed. the Rt. Hon. Lord Cooper of Culross, 1947 (The Stair Society, Vol. 11).

Reminiscences

Edward B. Ramsay, Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character, new ed., 1924.

RHSLI

The Records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, Vol. 1, Admissions from A.D. 1420 to A.D. 1799, 1896.

Robert

Le Grand Robert de la langue française, 2nd ed., 1985. xxxviii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 38

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Robertson

George Robertson, Topographical Description of Ayrshire, more particularly of Cunninghame, 1820.

Rogers

Charles Rogers, Memorials of the Earl of Stirling and the House of Alexander, 2 vols., 1877.

Rome’s Mediterranean Empire

Livy, Rome’s Mediterranean Empire, Books Forty-One to Forty-Five and the Periochae, trans. with an introduction and notes by Jane D. Chaplin, 2007.

Ros Davies’ Co. Down Ros Davies’ Co. Down, Northern Ireland Family History Research Site, . Ross

Ian Simpson Ross, Lord Kames and the Scotland of his Day, 1972.

Roughead

William Roughead, ‘The Wandering Jurist; or, Boswell’s Queer Client’, in Rascals Revived, 1940, pp. 129–83.

Rowe

Lucan’s Pharsalia, trans. Nicholas Rowe, 2 vols., 1812.

Royal College of Surgeons

List of Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from the year 1581 to 31st December 1873, 1874.

Royal Kal.

The Royal Kalendar; or complete and correct annual register for England, Scotland, Ireland, and America, for the year 1768.

RPS

Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, ed. Keith M. Brown and others, University of St. Andrews website, .

Rubenhold

Hallie Rubenhold, The Covent Garden Ladies Pimp General Jack & the Extraordinary Story of Harris’s List, 2006.

Rudé

George Rudé, Wilkes and Liberty: A Social Study, 1983.

Russell

John Russell, The Form of Process in the Court of Session, and Court of Teinds, 1768.

Sarcar

S. C. Sarcar, ‘Some Notes on the Intercourse of Bengal with the Northern Countries in the Second half of the Eighteenth Century’, in Bengal: Past & Present, xli, Jan.–June 1931, pp. 119–28.

SBD

Robert Chambers, Scottish Biographical Dictionary, 1832–35.

Scanlan

J. T. Scanlan, ‘“How Like You the Eloquence of a Young Barrister?”: Love and the Law in Boswell’s Development as a Writer in the Late 1760s’, in Impassioned Jurisprudence: Law, Literature, and Emotion, 1760–1848, ed. Nancy E. Johnson, 2015, pp. 39–65. xxxix

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 39

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Scots Brigade

Papers Illustrating the History of the Scots Brigade in the Service of the United Netherlands, 1572–1782, Vol. 2, 1698–1782, ed. James Ferguson, 1899.

Scots Charta Chest

Curiosities of a Scots Charta Chest, 1600–1800, with the Travels and Memoranda of Sir Alexander Dick, Baronet of Prestonfield, Midlothian, Written by Himself, ed. the Hon. Mrs. Atholl Forbes, 1897.

Scots Mag.

The Scots Magazine, 1739–1817.

Scots Peer.

Sir James Balfour Paul, The Scots Peerage, 9 vols., 1904–14.

Scott

Paul H. Scott, ‘Boswell and the National Question’, in Boswell in Scotland and Beyond, ed. Thomas Crawford, 1997, pp. 22–32.

Scottish Guardian

Scottish Guardian, 19 vols., 1931–49.

Scullion

Adrienne Scullion, ‘The Eighteenth Century’, in A History of Scottish Theatre, ed. Bill Findlay, 1998, pp. 80–136.

Search of a Wife

Boswell in Search of a Wife, 1766–1769, ed. Frank Brady and F. A. Pottle, 1956.

Sedgwick

Romney Sedgwick, The House of Commons 1715–1754, 2 vols., 1970.

Selwyn

Nesta Selwyn, ‘Social and Cultural Activities’, in HCO 4, pp. 425–41.

Sher

Richard B. Sher, The Enlightenment & The Book: Scottish Authors & Their Publishers in EighteenthCentury Britain, Ireland, & America, 2006.

Shirley

G. W. Shirley, ‘Burghal Life in Dumfries Two Centuries Ago’, in TJP, series 3, Vol. 8, pp. 117–36.

Signet Library

Signet Library, Edinburgh.

Simcock

A. V. Simcock, The Ashmolean Museum and Oxford Science 1683–1983, 1984.

SJ

Samuel Johnson.

Slave-ownership

Legacies of British Slave-ownership, website, .

Smout

T. C. Smout, A History of the Scottish People, 1560–1830, 2nd ed., 1970.

Somerville

Thomas Somerville, My Own Life and Times, 1741–1814, 1861. xl

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 40

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Spake

Neil Spake, ‘A Brief History of Scottish Brewing’, .

Spottiswood

John Spottiswood, The Form of Process before the Lords of Council and Session, observed in Advocations, Ordinary Actions, and Suspensions, 1718.

SRS

Publications of the Scottish Records Society, multiple vols., 1897–.

Stair

James Dalrymple, Viscount Stair, The Institutions of the Law of Scotland, 3rd ed., 1759.

Stat. Acct. Scot.

The Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791–1799, ed. Sir John Sinclair, 20 vols., reissued 1973–83, ed. Donald J. Withrington and Ian R. Grant.

State Trials

A Complete Collection of State Trials . . . from the Earliest Period to the Year 1783, compiled by T. B. Howell, 21 vols., 1816.

Stell

Geoffrey Stell, Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Dumfries and Galloway, 1986.

Stevenson

John Stevenson, Two Centuries of Life in Down, 1600–1800, 1920.

Stewart, ‘Session Papers in the Advocates Library’

Angus Stewart, ‘The Session Papers in the Advocates Library’, in Miscellany Four, 2002, pp. 199–221 (The Stair Society, Vol. 49).

Stodart

R. R. Stodart, ‘Sir William Dick of Braid, Knight’, The Herald and Genealogist (1874) viii. 257–69.

Strype

John Strype, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, 1720.

Stuart

Marie W. Stuart, Old Edinburgh Taverns, 1952.

Sutton and Rackham

Cicero, The Loeb Classical Library, in 28 vols., Vols. 3–4, De Oratore, in 2 vols., Vol. 1: Books I, II, trans. E. W. Sutton, comp. H. Rackham, 1942, repr. 1967.

Swinson

Arthur Swinson, A Register of the Regiments and Corps of the British Army, 1972.

TGTI

George Tyner, The Traveller’s Guide Through Ireland; being an accurate and complete companion to Captain Alexander Taylor’s Map of Ireland, 1794.

TGTS

The Traveller’s Guide Through Scotland, and its Islands, 6th ed., 2 vols., 1814. xli

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 41

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Thin

Robert Thin, ‘The Old Infirmary and Earlier Hospitals’, in BOEC, Vol. 15, pp. 135–63.

Thomas

Peter D. G. Thomas, John Wilkes: A Friend to Liberty, 1996.

Thorne

R. G. Thorne, The House of Commons 1790–1820, 5 vols., 1986.

Timbs

John Timbs, Club Life of London with Anecdotes of the Clubs, Coffee-houses and Taverns of the Metropolis during the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries, 2 vols., 1866.

Timperley

Loretta R. Timperley, A Directory of Landownership in Scotland c. 1770, SRS, 1976.

TJP

Transactions and Journal Proceedings of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 1876–1964.

Top. and Chor. Survey

A Topographical and Chorographical Survey of the County of Down, 1740.

Top. Dict. Ireland

Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 2nd ed., 2 vols., 1840.

Topham

Edward Topham, Letters from Edinburgh 1774–1775, 1971.

Tour in Ireland

Arthur Young, A Tour in Ireland: with general observations on the present state of that kingdom. Made in the years 1776, 1777, and 1778, and brought down to the end of 1779, 2 vols., 1780.

Tour to the Hebrides

James Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, with Samuel Johnson, LL.D., 1785, in Life v. Based on the text of the 3rd ed., 1786.

Trantner

Nigel G. Trantner, The Fortified House in Scotland, 5 vols., 1962–70.

Trial of Katharine Nairn

Trial of Katharine Nairn, ed. William Roughead, 1926.

Turnbull, ‘Biography and the Union’

Gordon Turnbull, ‘James Boswell: Biography and the Union’, in The History of Scottish Literature, Vol. 2, 1660–1800, ed. Andrew Hook, 1987, pp. 157–73.

Turnbull, ‘Boswell and Gordon Turnbull, ‘Boswell and Sympathy: The Trial Sympathy’ and Execution of John Reid’, in New Light on Boswell, ed. Greg Clingham, 1991, pp. 104–15. Turner

A. Logan Turner, Story of a Great Hospital: The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, 1729–1929, 1937. xlii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 42

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Tyler

David Tyler, ‘Humphrey Gainsborough (1718–1776); Cleric, Engineer and Inventor’, Transactions of the Newcomen Society, Vol. 76, 2006, pp. 51–86.

Un. Sc. Alm.

The Universal Scots Almanack, 1767–.

VHW

Samuel Johnson, Vanity of Human Wishes, ed. E. J. Payne, 1876.

Walker, LHS

David M. Walker, A Legal History of Scotland, Vol. 1, The Beginnings to A.D. 1286, 1988.

Walker, SJ

David M. Walker, The Scottish Jurists, 1985.

Walker, SLS

David M. Walker, The Scottish Legal System: An Introduction to the Study of Scots Law, 8th ed. (revised), 2001.

Walpoole

George Augustus Walpoole, The New British Traveller; or, a Complete Modern Universal Display of Great-Britain and Ireland, 1784.

Walsh

Pliny the Younger Complete Letters, trans. with an introduction and notes by P. G. Walsh, 2006.

Warden

Alex J. Warden, Angus or Forfarshire, the Land and People, 5 vols., 1880–85.

Watson

Alan Watson, The Law of the Ancient Romans, 1970.

Webb

Sidney and Beatrice Webb, English Local Government: Statutory Authorities for Special Purposes, 1922.

West Calder

William Cochrane Learmonth, History of West Calder compiled from various sources of information by a Native, 1885.

White

Jerry White, London in the Eighteenth Century: A Great and Monstrous Thing, 2012.

Whyte

Rev. Thomas Whyte, ‘An Account of the Parish of Liberton in Mid-Lothian, or County of Edinburgh’, Transactions of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. 1, 1792, pp. 292–366.

Wickes

H. L. Wickes, Regiments of Foot: A Historical Record of all the Foot Regiments of the British Army, 1974.

Williamson

Peter Williamson, Williamson’s Directory for the City of Edinburgh, Canongate, Leith, and suburbs, from the 25th May 1773, to 25th May 1774, 1773.

Williamson’s Directory, 1775–76

Williamson’s Directory, for the City of Edinburgh, Canongate, Leith, and Suburbs, from June 1775, to June 1776, 1775. xliii

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 43

27/02/23 6:13 PM

cue titles and abbreviations Wilson

Sir Daniel Wilson, Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time, 2nd ed., 2 vols., 1891.

WJH

The Works of the Late Reverend James Hervey . . . In Six Volumes, 1769.

WJT

William Johnson Temple.

Wraxall

Sir Nathaniel William Wraxall, Historical Memoirs of My Own Time, 2 vols., 1815.

W.S.

Writer to the Signet.

W.S. Register

Register of the Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet, 1983.

WWR

Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, trans. E. F. J. Payne, 2 vols., 1966.

Young

Arthur Young, A Six Months Tour Through the North of England: Containing an Account of the Present State of Agriculture, Manufactures and Population, 4 vols., 1770.

xliv

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 44

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction The journals covered by this volume relate to periods between the autumn of 1766 and May 1769. It has been said that the years 1766 to 1769 were the happiest years of Boswell’s life.1 During the first three of those years, Boswell commenced practice as an advocate at the Scottish Bar; wrote a major literary work, the Account of Corsica, which was an instant best-seller; became a tireless volunteer for the Douglas camp in the great Douglas Cause, the cause célèbre of eighteenth-century Scottish legal history; and started to give serious thought to finding a wife, while at the same time carrying on a passionate affair with his mistress. For much of that period Boswell displayed remarkable energy. During 1767, in particular, ‘there seems to have been no limit either to the amount of work he could perform or of pleasure he could encompass’.2 And during Boswell’s visits to London and Oxford in 1768 he produced some of his finest journal-writing.

The Law The journals covered by this volume are to a large extent a record of Boswell’s life as a young advocate during the first few years of his practice. While many of the journal entries relate to matters other than the law, the annotations in this volume, where appropriate, concentrate unashamedly on Boswell’s legal career. In the ‘trade edition’ volume of Boswell in Search of a Wife, which covers the period 1766 to 1769, Frank Brady observed that ‘complete annotation – such as full explication of Boswell’s legal cases – has been reserved for the research edition’.3 Although Boswell had no inclination to be a lawyer, his father, Alexander Boswell (1707–82), who was admitted advocate on 29 December 1729, appointed sheriff-depute of Wigtownshire in 1748 and appointed Lord of Session (as Lord Auchinleck) on 15 February 1754, was keen that Boswell follow him (and Lord Auchinleck’s father before him) in becoming an advocate. After studying Arts at Edinburgh University from 1753 to 1758, Boswell studied civil law (that is, Roman law) from 1758 to 1760, first at Edinburgh University and then at Glasgow University.4 From 1760 to 1762, Boswell studied law at home at Auchinleck (the Boswell family estate in Ayrshire) under his father’s guidance;5

Corr. 5, p. xxxiii. Earlier Years, p. 317. 3 Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. xxiii, McGraw-Hill p. xxiv. 4 Pottle, ‘Boswell’s University Education’, pp. 235–46. See also LPJB 1, pp. xl–xlii. 5 Earlier Years, p. 55. This was not at all to JB’s liking. He complained of having to live in his father’s ‘strict family’, having his ‘flighty imagination quite cramp’d’ and being ‘obliged to study Corpus Iuris Civilis’ (To WJT, 1 May 1761, Corr. 6, p. 33). 1 2

1

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 1

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction and on 30 July 1762 he sat and passed the Faculty of Advocates’ private examination in civil law.6 However, Boswell was far from happy at the prospect of becoming an advocate. In February 1763, while in London, he reflected that if he became an advocate he would spend the whole of his life ‘in a labyrinth of care’; his mind would be ‘harrassed with vexation’; and he would ‘find it very irksom to sit for hours hearing a heavy agent explain a heavy cause, and then to be obliged to remember and repeat distinctly the dull story, probably of some very trivial affair’.7 Nevertheless, during the winter of 1763–64 Boswell studied civil law at Utrecht University in Holland and started a private study of Scots law. Lord Auchinleck had agreed that if Boswell studied civil law at Utrecht, he could then spend some time travelling in Europe on the understanding that he would subsequently return to Scotland and become an advocate.8 ‘Scots law being to a large extent influenced by Roman law, and the Dutch being regarded at that time as the great masters of Roman law, it was customary in those days for an aspiring advocate to study Roman law in Holland before applying for admission to the Faculty of Advocates.’9 On his return to Scotland in March 1766 (after his grand tour of Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Corsica and France), Boswell, under his father’s guidance at Auchinleck, resumed his study of Scots law in preparation for his examination for admittance to the Faculty of Advocates. He was joined by his cousin, Claud Boswell of Balmuto, who also came to study under Lord Auchinleck. Boswell seems to have derived some pleasure from the experience: I have studied Scots Law with a good deal of care under as good a Professor as ever lived[,] My Worthy Father . . . I have had more real satisfaction these two months past, than I had for 6 JB had latterly also studied in Edinburgh under William Wallace, advocate, Professor of Universal History (and later Professor of Scots Law) at Edinburgh University. In undated journal notes, JB recorded that, during the examination, he was ‘a little frightened but it was rather an agreable sensation as I felt myself much in earnest; I recovered myself and realy went through it easily and with Applause’ (Corr. 9, p. 308 n. 22). 7 Journ. 25 Feb. 1763, LJ 1762–63, pp. 153–54. 8 Earlier Years, pp. 109–10; Journ. 8 and 9 June 1763, LJ 1762–63, pp. 239–40. It is clear that when this agreement with Lord Auchinleck was reached, JB, although willing to become an advocate, contemplated only doing so with a view to acquiring the status of advocate as a means of furthering his ambition of becoming a Member of Parliament, for JB wrote: ‘I shall make as much improvement as possible, while I am abroad, and when I return shall put on the gown as a Member of the Faculty of Advocates, and be upon the footing of a Gentleman of Business with a view to my getting into Parliament’ (To WJT, 15 July 1763, Corr. 6, p. 42). 9 LPJB 1, p. xliii. However, the tradition was coming to an end. ‘[A]fter 1750, very few Scottish law students attended Dutch universities (Cairns, “Legal Study in Utrecht in the Late 1740s”, p. 38) – and, indeed, when Boswell attended Utrecht University, he discovered that he was the only person from Britain studying there (ibid., pp. 38 and 69)’ (LPJB 1, p. xliii n. 29). See also To WJT, 23 Sept. 1763, Corr. 6, p. 70.

2

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 2

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction years before. I have been doing my duty. I have been giving sensible comfort to a most affectionate Father, and been preparing myself to be of use in the World. I would fain hope that my idle days are now over, and that the rest of my life shall be employed as it ought to be.10 Boswell passed the examination in Scots law, which was on 11 July.11 He then had to overcome two further hurdles before he could be admitted advocate: He . . . had to submit a printed thesis, in Latin, containing a dissertation on one of the titles of the Pandects, after which he was required to undergo a public examination on the thesis. The subject assigned to Boswell from the Pandects was Book 33, Title 10: De supellectile legata (‘Legacies of Household Furniture’). The thesis consisted of seven pages and was printed at Boswell’s expense. The public examination took place on 26 July, and it is thought that this probably consisted ‘merely of reading in Latin previously prepared answers to three challenges which Boswell himself had drafted and given to three of his friends beforehand’.12 The same day on which the public examination was held, Boswell was declared ‘sufficiently qualified’. Boswell, having thus ‘passed advocate’, was now ready, at the age of 25, to be formally admitted as an advocate and to commence his career at the Bar. The admission ceremony was on 29 July 1766,13 when he had to deliver a speech before the assembled judges of the Court of Session on the subject matter of his thesis (or part of it) and then take the usual oaths of allegiance and fidelity.14 When Boswell was admitted advocate, there were less than two weeks of the Court of Session’s summer session left, as that session ended on 11 August. However, in that period Boswell picked up instructions in ten different cases and earned eight guineas.15 Boswell’s notebook of memoranda, notes and jottings compiled in the autumn of 176616 appears to commence after he and his father had travelled to Auchinleck on 12 August for the autumn vacation. The first To JJ, 4 May 1766, Corr. 1, p. 214. LPJB 1, p. xlv; Earlier Years, p. 291; Faculty of Advocates, Faculty Record FR62, held in the NLS. 12 Earlier Years, p. 292. 13 That being the day when, in JB’s own words, he first ‘put on the Gown’ (title page of the Consultation Book). 14 LPJB 1, pp. xlv–xlvi. See also MBFA, pp. xlii, 167; Spottiswood, p. xxxviii. 15 Consultation Book; LPJB 1, pp. 370–71. 16 See pp. 45–48. 10 11

3

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 3

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction page mentions ‘the pleasure of mere pure Idleness’. However, Boswell was not idle during the whole of the vacation, for he attended the Western Circuit of the High Court of Justiciary appointed to sit at Glasgow from 11 September (at which circuit Lord Auchinleck was one of the two judges). Boswell’s purpose was to try to pick up some criminal work in the hope of making a reputation for himself as an able lawyer. On 13 September, he obtained his first criminal case, that of John Reid, a ‘flesher’ accused of sheep-stealing.17 The seventh and eighth pages of Boswell’s notebook contain his observations on aspects of the case.18 Boswell kept his papers in relation to Reid’s case and they have been preserved.19 Papers relating to a good number of the other criminal cases in which Boswell was involved were likewise kept by him and have been preserved – for example, the cases of Joseph Taylor, accused of horse-stealing;20 Robert Hay, accused of robbery;21 Robert Johnston and others (‘the Galloway rioters’), accused of being members of a mob of ‘meal rioters’;22 James Barclay and others (‘the Stewarton rioters’), likewise accused of being members of a mob of ‘meal rioters’;23 and William Harris, accused of forgery and uttering.24 As Pottle observed, Boswell ‘began the accumulation of one of the most moving sections of his archives, a bale of legal papers relating to clients of his who were tried for their lives . . . Most of these clients were hanged in spite of all his efforts.’25 Criminal work formed only a relatively small, and irregular, part of Boswell’s practice as an advocate, by far the greater part of which related to civil causes. Boswell retained very few papers in his civil causes, and it is sometimes suggested that this is because he did not sufficiently care about them to do so.26 However, there were in fact limited opportunities to retain papers in civil causes. All of Boswell’s instructions came from solicitors (who in those days were called ‘writers’), and when he received instructions to carry out a particular piece of work (almost invariably to draft a paper to be lodged in court, attend a hearing in court, attend a consultation or write an opinion) he would be given a set of relevant papers. Once that work had been completed, he had to return the set of papers

For Reid’s case, see pp. 57–58 n. 47. JB would later also attend the Southern Circuit of the High Court of Justiciary appointed to sit at Ayr from 10 Oct., and on 11 Oct. he would represent a James Haddow at his trial on two charges of housebreaking (see p. 60 n. 60). 18 See p. 46. 19 Yale Lg 4. See also LPJB 1, pp. 32–40. 20 Yale Lg 3. For a brief account of this case, see Earlier Years, p. 310. 21 Yale Lg 6. Journ. 9 Feb. 1767 and n. 1, 10 Feb. 1767 and n. 1, 11 and 15 Feb. 1767. See also LPJB 1, pp. 141–44, 147–48. 22 Yale Lg 8. Journ. 21 May 1767 and n. 7 and 22 May 1767 and n. 1. See also LPJB 1, pp. 286–92. 23 Yale Lg 9. Journ. 4 May 1767 and n. 1 and 23 May 1767 and n. 1. 24 Yale Lg 16–19. See also LPJB 2, pp. 417–21. 25 Earlier Years, p. 300. 26 Corr. 5, p. xxxix. 17

4

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 4

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction along with any paper drafted by him.27 Papers drafted by him (often extending to many pages) were written by hand, normally by a clerk writing to Boswell’s dictation. Where necessary, draft papers, once received by the solicitors, were copied by hand by ‘copiators’ or (in Inner House cases) printed, with as many copies as required.28 There remain in existence several substantial collections of printed papers (referred to as ‘Session Papers’); most were collected by judges, but some advocates collected papers relating to cases in which they were involved.29 It is curious that Boswell did not make any collection of the printed Session Papers drafted by him. He certainly appreciated the value of Session Papers generally. He wrote that ‘by binding up the Session Papers a Man may lay up a Treasure of Law Reasoning & a Collection of extraordinary facts’.30 And after a visit to Professor William Wallace he remarked: ‘[W]hen I saw his law papers neatly bound up, with accurate indexes, and amongst them some of my own writing, the business of a Scotch lawyer acquired value in my mind, and I thought of continuing it even in the worst event.’31 Furthermore, in August 1769 he recorded: ‘I have . . . been employed several hours for several evenings in sorting a large mass of session papers belonging to my father and selecting such as are worth binding; and, to show the force of custom, I have been very fond of this business.’32 He recorded a similar event in 1776: ‘I had set apart this day for sorting a large parcel of my father’s session papers, to select what were worth binding. I like such an operation wonderfully. The succession of different subjects and different lawyers passing quickly before me was amusing, and I had the pleasure of bringing order out of confusion as I arranged.’33 A great part of Boswell’s work as an advocate in civil causes involved writing legal papers rather than appearing in court. As he noted: Ours is a court of papers. We are never seriously engaged but when we write. We may be compared to the Highlanders in 1745. Our [oral] pleading is like their firing their musketry, which did little execution. We do not fall heartily to work till we take to our pens, as they to their broadswords.34 See, for example, the letter to JB dated 22 Apr. 1767 from John Muir Chalmer, W.S., acknowledging receipt of the ‘great Bundle’ containing two papers drafted by JB (Corr. 5, p. 150). 28 The printing of papers in the Inner House ‘became universal from 1710’, and in some cases up to sixty or seventy copies of papers were printed (Stewart, ‘Session Papers in the Advocates Library’, p. 203 and n. 22). See also LPJB 2, p. 277 (‘Jan. 18 . . . Paid for printing the answers . . . seventy copies’). 29 Stewart, ‘Session Papers in the Advocates Library’, p. 209. 30 To WJT, 28 Feb. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 165. 31 Journ. 23 July 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 254, McGraw-Hill pp. 238–39. 32 Journ. 15 Aug. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 273, McGraw-Hill p. 256. 33 Journ. 13 Jan. 1776, Ominous Years, p. 218. 34 Journ. 2 Feb. 1776, Ominous Years, p. 228. 27

5

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 5

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction He explained the position in more detail as follows: [O]ne half of the Business before the Court of Session is carried on by writing. In the first instance a Cause is pleaded before the Lord Ordinary that is to say one of the fifteen Judges who sits in his turn for a week in the Outerhouse.35 But no sooner does he give Judgment than We give him in Representations & Answers and Replys & Duplys & Triplys, & He will sometimes order Memorials to give him a full view of the cause. Then We reclaim to the Innerhouse36 by Petition & there again we give in variety of printed papers, from which the Lords determine the Cause. For it is only in Causes of great consequence that the Court orders a hearing in presence. This method of procedure is admirable, for it gives the Judges a compleat state of every question.37 Although some of Boswell’s civil causes were inevitably uninspiring,38 there is no doubt that he found many of his civil causes interesting and sometimes even stimulating and exciting. A few examples from the early part of Boswell’s legal career may serve to illustrate the point. When acting in the cause of Hugh Cairncross v. William Heatly and Others, Boswell informed Sir Alexander Dick: ‘I am for the Desendant of an ancient family who after an obscurity of several generations lays claim to the estate of his Forefathers. You know my old feudal Soul and how much a Cause of this kind must interest me.’39 At a hearing before Lord Hailes in the cause of John and Samuel Osborn v. Earl of Dumfries, Boswell considered that he spoke ‘quite in the spirit of bold eloquence’;40 and when writing Replies in the cause of John Brown v. Caesar Parr he ‘laboured hard & with spirit’.41 When writing an Information at Auchinleck in the cause of Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Gairloch v. Hector Mackenzie, younger, of Gairloch, and Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle, Boswell made the library a consultation room to inspire him ‘with noble ideas of antiquity of family’ while he wrote enthusiastically ‘in 35 That is, the Outer House – ‘the old Parliament Hall where the Scottish legislature voted itself out of existence in 1707’ (Stewart, ‘Session Papers in the Advocates Library’, p. 203). 36 That is, the Inner House. 37 To WJT, 28 Feb. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 165. For a detailed note on the Scottish courts and legal system in the period 1769 to 1774, see Defence, Appendix B, Heinemann pp. 364–71, McGraw-Hill pp. 350–56. 38 For example, JB referred to the cause of William Johnston v. John Paxton as a ‘very tedious Litigation’ (see pp. 61–62 n. 70) and referred to the action of John Logan v. James McHarg and James McHarg as ‘this dull litigation’ (see pp. 115–18 n. 8). 39 To Sir Alexander Dick, 9 Dec. 1766, Corr. 5, p. 93 (see pp. 80–81 n. 2 below). 40 Journ. 12 Feb. 1767. 41 Journ. 3 Apr. 1767.

6

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 6

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction favour of entails’.42 In relation to the cause of Jean Robertson v. James Storrie,43 Boswell wrote to his friend John Johnston of Grange: ‘I am to give a very curious pleading this morning. A woman whose Husband is absent in England has been defamed as a Whore by a Tidewaiter [customs officer]. I am for her in a Process of Defamation. Pray come. I shall speak a little after ten.’44 In conversation with Lord Chief Justice Mansfield in London in 1768, Boswell discussed the cause of John Smith v. Archibald Steel (in which Boswell’s client, Steel, had sold a horse to Smith, who subsequently claimed that the horse was defective and who was seeking repayment of the price), and sought Mansfield’s views on the main point in the cause, which in a reclaiming petition to the Inner House of the Court of Session Boswell had described as ‘a question of perhaps as general importance as any that has occurred of a long time before this Supreme Court’.45 While travelling to London in 1769, Boswell struck up a conversation with his companion for the journey, Farquhar Kinloch, a merchant in London,46 who, says Boswell, ‘was acquainted with various branches of trade. I made our conversation turn upon it, and learned a good deal from him as to some mercantile causes in which I am concerned.’47 In 1772, while waiting in London for the hearing of the appeal to the House of Lords in the cause of John Hastie v. Patrick Campbell of Knap and Others48 (in which Boswell’s client, Hastie, who had been dismissed as a schoolmaster on the grounds that he had not only neglected the school but also inflicted severe corporal punishment on the boys, was seeking to have his dismissal overturned), Boswell anxiously consulted Samuel Johnson for his thoughts on the matter and ‘sat with most assiduous care and eagerness’ while Johnson dictated ‘a noble defence’.49 Boswell’s interest in civil causes in the period covered by the present volume is also demonstrated by the fact that from 3 February 1767 to 29 November 1768 he kept a notebook in which he recorded the remarks made by the individual judges in some of the causes in which he was engaged.50 One of the most memorable passages in the journals covered by this volume relates to a visit Boswell made to the grim Tolbooth prison in Edinburgh in

Journ. 14 Apr. 1767. For which, see LPJB 1, pp. 117–21. 44 To JJ, 27 Jan. 1767, Corr. 1, pp. 220–21. 45 MS. reclaiming petition dated 5 Mar. 1768 (NRS CS233/S/3/6); LPJB 1, p. 132 n. 465. 46 George Farquhar Kinloch (d. 1800), partner in the firm of Roger Hog and Kinloch, merchants, Basinghall Street, London (Kent’s Dir. 1766, p. 70; Kent’s Dir. 1771, p. 91; Eur. Mag. July 1800, xxxviii. 78). 47 Journ. 28 Aug. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 281, McGraw-Hill p. 264. 48 For which, see LPJB 2, pp. 326–56. 49 Journ. 11 Apr. 1772, Defence, Heinemann p. 113, McGraw-Hill p. 109. 50 Yale MS. Lg 5.5. The notebook also contains a note of judicial remarks made in a cause on 16 Nov. 1769. 42 43

7

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 7

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction February 1768 to see his criminal client John Raybould, condemned to death for forgery: I had dreamt of Raybould under sentence of death. I was gloomy . . . [V]isited Raybould that my gloomy imagination might be cured by seeing the reality. I was shewn up to him by Archibald the soldier who was to be tried for murder. The clanking of the iron-room door was terrible. I found him very composed. I sat by him an hour & a half by the light of a dim farthing candle. He spoke very properly on religion.51 Notwithstanding Boswell’s claim that, in complying with his father’s wishes, he had been ‘pressed’ into the law,52 it seems that, at least during the first few years of his practice, he quite enjoyed being an advocate. Indeed, after he had been at the Bar for five months, he informed Giuseppe Baretti: I am now entered on the profession of the law, which you know is one great road of ambition in this Country. I am an Advocate at the Scots Bar, which is a very good field for me. The labours indeed of my Profession are great. But so are the rewards. A Counsellor not only gets guineas, but he obtains the confidence of his fellow-creatures, and an insensible superiority over them; and at last he arrives at high honours. Such is my career, and in thus advancing I am chearfull and happy.53 Two months later, Boswell reported his progress to his friend William Johnson Temple: I am surprised at myself, I allready speak with so much ease & boldness, & have allready the Language of the Bar so much at command. I have now cleared 80 Guineas.54 I am kept very throng.55 My Clerk56 comes to me every morning at Six, & I have dictated to him 40 folio pages in one day. It is impossible to give you an idea of my present life . . . I am doing nobly . . . It is

Journ. 21 Feb. 1768. See, e.g., Journ. 18 Aug. 1773, Hebrides, p. 33. 53 To Giuseppe Baretti, 5 Jan. 1767, Corr. 5, 108. 54 ‘[JB] is referring in round terms to his fees from the start of the winter session of the Court of Session on 12 November 1766 to 4 March 1767 . . . The Consultation Book indicates that the precise amount of his fees in that period was 81 guineas’ (LPJB 1, p. xlviii n. 59). 55 Busy (Scots). 56 James Brown. 51 52

8

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 8

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction very odd that I can labour so hard at Law when I am so indolent in other things.57 And after being at the Bar for eight months, Boswell informed Lord Chatham (William Pitt the Elder): [T]o please a worthy and respected Father one of our Scots Judges, I studied law, and am now fairly entered to the Bar. I begin to like it. I can labour hard, I feel myself coming forward, and I hope to be usefull to my Country.58 Boswell was even content to keep his parliamentary ambitions in check, as he explained to his friend George Dempster: I speak well I think; and am content though my voice should never be heard in England, but in Appeals.59 Perhaps indeed I may yet be a Parliament man as well as the best of you. But my views now are such that I would not wish it soon, and at any rate shall hardly think of it, except it be first thought of by my noble Fellow Traveller and Patron My Lord Mounstuart.60 In December 1766, Sir Alexander Dick reported to Boswell that many of Boswell’s fellow advocates had spoken with full approval of his long speech before the Inner House of the Court of Session in the cause of Hugh Cairncross v. William Heatly and Others.61 And in February 1767, Lord Auchinleck’s close friend Sir John Pringle sent Boswell a most encouraging letter: I continue to have the satisfaction of hearing from different hands of your application to business, and of the figure which You have made and are likely to make at the bar . . . [I]f you continue to give application, You will soon get the start of all our young men in the Parliament House,62 and will give the tone for a new eloquence very different from what prevailed there in my time. You have the advantage of possessing the English language and the accent in a greater degree than any of your rivals, and a turn for expressing yourself in a clear and energetic manner.63

To WJT, 4 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, pp. 165–66. To Lord Chatham, 8 Apr. 1767, Corr. 5, p. 139. 59 That is, appeals in Scottish causes to the House of Lords. 60 To GD, 1 Jan. 1767, Corr. 5, p. 102. 61 From Sir Alexander Dick, 13 Dec. 1766, Corr. 5, p. 95 (see pp. 80–81 n. 2 below). 62 For the Parliament House, where the Court of Session sat, see p. 108 n. 4. 63 From Sir John Pringle, 10 Feb. 1767, Corr. 5, p. 118. 57 58

9

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 9

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction Boswell was also sometimes encouraged by remarks from judges. For example, after a hearing in the cause of David Cubbieson of Blackcraig v. John Cubbieson, Lord Gardenstone told him that he had pleaded ‘very well’;64 and after a tête-àtête with Lord Hailes he recorded that his Lordship ‘commended you in some causes’ and ‘said you had fought a good Battel’, although Lord Hailes also said that in the case of Warnock v. Maxwell Boswell had ‘drawn a paper with as unfair a state of the facts as Lockhart could have done’.65 The last remark was a ‘backhanded compliment’,66 for Alexander Lockhart was Dean of the Faculty of Advocates and was one of the most successful advocates at the Bar. Boswell’s enjoyment of his work as an advocate during the early part of his legal career is evidenced by certain humorous legal papers he drafted, such as the Memorial dated 24 February 1767 for Sir Alexander Dick in the cause of Sir Alexander Dick v. The Earl of Abercorn67 and the reclaiming petition dated 19 February 1767 for Margaret and Lilias Thomson, and their husbands, in the cause of Hugh Kerr v. Margaret and Lilias Thomson.68 In March 1767, Boswell even feels ‘a kind of gloom’ thinking that it is the last day of the Court of Session’s winter session,69 and at the end of the Christmas vacation in January 1768 he is ‘entertained’ to find himself again in Parliament House ‘in all the hurry of business’.70 His legal career certainly kept him busy, for his Consultation Book lists eighty-six civil causes in which he was involved in one way or another in the year 1767 alone,71 and it is known that he was involved in at least six further civil causes in that year.72 As Boswell’s practice grew, he sometimes complained about the labour involved and the concomitant pressure. For example, in February 1767 we find him writing: ‘You was quite overpowered with papers to draw . . . Saw labour & poring necessary & reading long papers.’73 And in January 1768, when busy with ‘Election Causes’, he lamented: ‘[F]ound the law fatigue me greatly, & from my indolent & anxious temper I was really harassed with it.’74 Boswell, however, relished his status as an advocate. When charging the jury in the High Court of Justiciary at the trial of John Raybould in January 1768, he ‘felt sound ambition, & clear faculties’;75 at a meeting of the Faculty of Advocates the Journ. 6 Feb. 1767. JB also later hears that Henry Dundas, the SolicitorGeneral for Scotland, had spoken of his ‘masterly Reply’ (Journ. 8 Feb. 1767). 65 Journ. 18 Mar. 1767. 66 Earlier Years, p. 308. 67 For the Memorial (NRS CS226/2729), see LPJB 1, pp. 18–25. 68 For the reclaiming petition (NRS CS228/K/2/19), see LPJB 1, pp. 47–49. 69 Journ. 11 Mar. 1767. 70 Journ. 14 Jan. 1768. 71 LPJB 1, pp. 372–78; LPJB 2, pp. 395–97. 72 LPJB 1, LP10, LP14, LP22, LP31; LPJB 2, LP42, LP47. 73 Journ. 21 Feb. 1767. 74 Journ. 15 Jan. 1768. See also Journ. 18 Feb. 1767. 75 Journ. 18 Jan. 1768. 64

10

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 10

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction following day he considered himself ‘Mr. James Boswell, comfortable & secure’;76 the following month he remarked that ‘the law is my profession, my occupation in life’;77 and he records that in March, on arriving in London, ‘I contentedly felt myself an Edinburgh Advocate’.78 He proudly tells Samuel Johnson that he is ‘settled as a Lawyer’ and has earned £200 over the year;79 and he found that ‘having been two years a Lawyer in real business’ had given him ‘great force’.80

Account of Corsica This volume covers much of the period during which Boswell wrote and published An Account of Corsica. He had visited that island in 1765 while on his grand tour. The idea of going to Corsica occurred to him as a consequence of the first of several interviews with Jean-Jacques Rousseau in December 1764 at Rousseau’s temporary mountain retreat at Môtiers in Neuchâtel. Corsica was ruled by the Republic of Genoa but the islanders, under their leader, General Pasquale Paoli, were conducting an armed rebellion with a view to obtaining independence. The rebels regarded the island as being a new republic. Rousseau told Boswell that he had been invited to prepare ‘a set of laws’ for the island;81 and a few days later Boswell would jokingly suggest that Rousseau appoint him his Ambassador Extraordinary to Corsica.82 Brady and Pottle explain that the joke had serious overtones. The Corsican state was almost unknown, and although the British had traded with the island for many years, apparently no British gentleman had ever penetrated the interior. Such a trip would be a unique embellishment of [Boswell’s] grand tour. But his project of visiting Corsica also arose from his serious interest in the political and social patterns of the new state. His journal . . . attests repeatedly to the uneasy attraction that Rousseau’s theories of primitive man and the state of nature, in Boswell’s simplified version, exerted upon him; Corsica might serve as a proving ground for these theories.83 Journ. 19 Jan. 1768. Journ. 6 Feb. 1768. 78 Journ. 22 Mar. 1768. 79 Journ. 26 Mar. 1768. 80 Journ. 28 Mar. 1768. 81 To GD, 3 Dec. 1764, Yale MS. L 418. ‘Rousseau had praised the Corsicans in the Contrat social (Bk. II, ch. 10) for having struggled gallantly for independence and now being ready for sound laws (OC Rousseau, iii. 391)’ (Journ. 1, p. 294 n. 35). 82 Journ. 15 Dec. 1764, Journ. 1, p. 290. 83 Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 153, McGraw-Hill p. 145. 76 77

11

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 11

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction On 11 May 1765, Boswell wrote to Rousseau informing him that he was ‘determined . . . to go to Corsica, as I told you at Môtiers’.84 As Boswell explains in the second part of the Account of Corsica – namely, The Journal of a Tour to Corsica, Corsica occurred to me as a place which no body else had seen, and where I should find what was to be seen no where else, a people actually fighting for liberty, and forming themselves from a poor inconsiderable oppressed nation, into a flourishing and independent state.85 However, it was not until October that Boswell finally landed on the island. Here he would ‘come to know and admire General Paoli, whose noble bearing and firm rule he would idealize’ in his Account of Corsica.86 As stated by Boulton and McLoughlin, ‘the underlying theme’ of An Account of Corsica is ‘liberty’.87 Indeed, the very first word of Boswell’s Introduction is ‘Liberty’;88 and in his Preface he refers to the book as ‘my little monument to liberty’.89 Furthermore, on the title-page there is a quotation, in the original Latin, from the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath, which (in translation) contains the words: ‘We fight . . . for the sake of liberty alone.’90 ‘Liberty’ was the catchword of the age. Boswell’s friend John Wilkes, who had pronounced himself to be ‘a firm and intrepid assertor of the rights of his fellow subjects, and of the liberties of Whigs and Englishmen’,91 was widely regarded as being the champion of liberty in Great Britain. Boswell would see Wilkes on the hustings in London in March 1768 and would record that the ‘confusion & the noise of the mob roaring Wilkes & Liberty were prodigious’.92 As Curley explains, in An Account of Corsica Boswell ‘aimed to arouse the sympathy of his liberty-loving countrymen but from a radical Rousseauistic viewpoint echoing the Social Contract (“Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains . . . To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man”)’, and one point of resemblance between Rousseau’s ‘theoretical formulations’ and Boswell’s ‘actual portrayal of Corsica’ is that ‘there is a common stress on liberty as the greatest good and end of legislation’.93 It is sometimes suggested that Boswell’s interest in Corsica arose out of an antipathy to the 1707 Treaty of Union between England and Scotland and a Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 86, McGraw-Hill p. 81. Corsica, p. 263; Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 161. 86 Journ. 1, p. 294 n. 35. 87 Boulton and McLoughlin, p. xxxv. See also Curley, p. 93. 88 Corsica, p. 1; Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 21. 89 Corsica, p. xv; Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 12. 90 See pp. 58–59 n. 48. 91 North Briton 45, 23 Apr. 1763. 92 Journ. 23 Mar. 1768. 93 Curley, pp. 92–93. 84 85

12

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 12

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction concomitant wish to see Scotland an independent nation again. Looked at in this light, it is said, Boswell identified with the Corsican insurgents who were seeking to obtain full independence for their island.94 But this theory has to be treated with caution, for Boswell’s views with regard to the Union were inconsistent and self-contradictory. It is true that he sometimes expressed strong sentiments against the Union, and several instances may be cited. For example, in 1762, after seeing two Scottish soldiers insulted by some of the audience at the Covent Garden Theatre, London, Boswell says his ‘Scotch blood boiled with indignation . . . I hated the English, I wished from my Soul that the Union was broke & that we might give them another battle of Bannockburn’;95 in October 1764, while in Leipzig, Boswell records that his ‘old spirit got up’ when reading to a couple of companions ‘some choice passages’ from a copy of the Declaration of Arbroath – ‘They were struck with the noble sentiments of liberty of the old Scots; and they exprest their regret at the shamefull union. I felt true patriot sorrow. O Infamous rascals who sold the honour of your country to a nation against which our Ancestors supported themselves with so much glory. But, I say no more, only alas poor Scotland!’;96 in conversation with Rousseau in 1764 Boswell referred to ‘notre maudite union’97 (‘our cursed Union’); in 1765 he recorded himself as saying that he feared most people in Scotland were reconciled to the Union because ‘they have lost all principle and spirit of patriotism’;98 in 1773, while Boswell and Samuel Johnson were looking at the Treaty of Union in Edinburgh, Boswell ‘began to indulge old Scottish sentiments and to express a warm regret that by our Union with England, we were no more – our independent kingdom was lost’;99 and even as late as 1790 Boswell recorded that in conversation he had ‘attacked the Union and said the nation was gone’.100 But, writing in 1785, he remarked: ‘[I]n my opinion it is better for Scotland in general that some of our public employments should be filled by gentlemen of distinction from the south side of the Tweed, as we have the benefit of promotion in England. Such an interchange would make a beneficial mixture of manners, and render our union more complete.’101 And in 1774, when David Hume suggested that Boswell write a history of the Union, mentioning the ‘advantages’ and ‘great improvements’ which Scotland had obtained by virtue of the Union, Boswell, while feeling strongly his ‘ignorance’ on the matter, said that he would ‘think of it’.102

See Pittock, pp. 48–50; Scott, p. 28. Journ. 8 Dec. 1762, LJ 1762–63, p. 32.  96 Journ. 6 Oct. 1764, Journ. 1, pp. 146–47.  97 Journ. 3 Dec. 1764, Journ. 1, p. 258.  98 Journ. 26 Dec. 1765, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 266, McGraw-Hill, p. 251.  99 Journ. 16 Aug. 1774, Hebrides, pp. 23–24. 100 Journ. 15 Feb. 1790, Great Biographer, p. 39. 101 Hebrides, p. 16. 102 Journ. 28 Oct. 1774, Ominous Years, pp. 29–30.  94  95

13

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 13

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction Accordingly, while there was undoubtedly an undercurrent of anti-Union sentiment on Boswell’s part, it seems that this was normally the result of spur-ofthe-moment effusions of emotion stimulated either by righteous indignation or by patriotic fervour of a romantic, backward-looking kind,103 whereas his more considered opinion was perhaps rather inclined to give the Union a degree of support. It is significant that in the Introduction to An Account of Corsica Boswell remarks: ‘That the spirit of liberty has flourished in modern times, we may appeal to the histories of the Swiss, and of the Dutch; and the boldest proofs of it are to be found in the annals of our own country.’104 The words ‘our own country’ are clearly a reference to Great Britain as a whole (the work was published in London and was not written primarily for a Scottish audience105), and those words must be intended to be read as including each part of Great Britain. If Boswell had regarded Scotland as being a subjugated part of Great Britain, he would surely not have expressed himself as he did. As Pottle observes, it seems that ‘the idea of writing a book on Corsica was formed while Boswell was still on the Island, if he did not go there with it in mind’, and it is ‘probable that he began work on it as soon as he reached home’.106 Boswell says in the Preface that he initially found his materials ‘deficient in many respects. I therefore applied to my friends abroad; and in the mean time directed my studies to such books as might furnish me with any thing relative to the subject.’107 Boswell’s notebook of memoranda, notes and jottings compiled in the autumn of 1766, with which the present volume opens, contains references to some of the books which Boswell wished to consult while visiting Glasgow in September. He tells himself: Get [George] Muirhead [Professor of Humanity] or some other Professor to shew you the Passages in Livy and other ancient Historians, where the Dominion of Carthage and Rome over Corsica is mentioned . . . Look also into Voltaire’s General

As Turnbull puts it, JB was genuinely ‘regretful of Scotland’s loss of national independence’ and ‘felt the allure of a reverential patriotism for a romanticized Scottish past’ (Turnbull, ‘Biography and the Union’, pp. 158–59). 104 Corsica, pp. 6–7; Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 24. 105 Indeed, in the Preface JB felt the need to explain: ‘It is the custom in Scotland to give the Judges of the Court of Session the title of Lords by the names of their estates’ (Corsica, p. xvii; Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 13). And in the first chapter he described Corsican horses as being ‘somewhat of the nature of Welch ponies, or of the little horses called shelties, which are found in the highlands and islands of Scotland’ (Corsica, pp. 38–39; Boulton and McLoughlin, pp. 41–42). Moreover, while writing the work at Auchinleck, he recorded: ‘Went on well — thought I was writing for Europe’ (Journ. 28 Mar. 1767). 106 Lit. Car. p. 60. 107 Corsica, pp. xi–xii; Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 10. For details of the persons from whom JB received materials, see Corr. 5, p. xxxv. 103

14

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 14

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction History, from which You may certainly take some Extracts with regard to the brave Islanders. Search the College Library, & enquire at the Literati for any Books on Corsica.108 Also, ‘Transcribe from D’Argens Lettres Juives . . . as to Corsica & Theodore.’109 In An Account of Corsica Boswell cites various ‘ancient Historians’ who mentioned Rome’s rule over the island: namely, Livy, Lucius Annaeus Florus and Pliny the Elder.110 Boswell would later be criticized for his references to classical works, but, as Pottle explains, he was ‘following the lead of the admired Remarks on Several Parts of Italy’ by Joseph Addison, who ‘had assumed out of hand that the correct way to write a travel book on Italy was to start by making a systematic collection of everything the Roman poets had said about the places one proposed to visit’.111 On 23 October 1766, writing from Auchinleck, Boswell informed Sir Alexander Dick: ‘I am going on with my Account of Corsica, and hope to make it a tollerable Book. I would wish to do the brave Islanders no harm by relating what I saw while I was among them.’112 Boswell did not write An Account of Corsica merely with a view to acquiring literary fame (although that was certainly a strong motive), but also to try to do a service for the island by stimulating support for Corsica in Britain in the hope that this would lead to the repeal of King George III’s Proclamation of 29 December 1763 denouncing the Corsicans as rebels and commanding all of His Majesty’s subjects to ‘forbear to give or furnish aid, assistance, countenance or succour, by any ways or means whatsoever’ to any of them.113 In furtherance of his twin aims, Boswell inserted numerous items about Corsica in The London Chronicle, many of them complete inventions on Boswell’s part.114 The inventions, as Pottle says, ‘were shrewdly devised to catch the attention of the public and, as our jargon would have it, to improve the public image of Corsica, which in England was generally assumed to be a savage land inhabited by dangerous malcontents’.115 And the newspaper items ‘were all advance publicity for the proposed book’ – for example, on 11 October 1766, The London Chronicle announced that Boswell was ‘soon to publish an account of the island of Corsica, with memoirs of General Paoli’. Items of a similar nature would subsequently appear on a regular basis.116 Boswell’s journal for 1767 begins, arrestingly, at a time when Boswell is a guest of Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session, at See pp. 45–46. See p. 46. 110 See pp. 52–53 n. 22. 111 Earlier Years, p. 358. 112 To Sir Alexander Dick, 23 Oct. 1766, Corr. 5, p. 75. 113 Ann. Reg. p. 213. 114 A great number of the items are listed in Lit. Car. pp. 236–41. 115 Earlier Years, p. 307. 116 Ibid., pp. 307–08. 108 109

15

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 15

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction Dundas’s country residence at Arniston. On 10 January, while in the library there, Boswell consults the Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiæ of Joannes Georgius Graevius and finds ‘some curious remarks on Corsica’.117 The following day, a Sunday, while the rest of the party are at church, Boswell stays all morning in the library, no doubt studying and taking notes from Graevius, whose work was quoted in An Account of Corsica in two places.118 Writing to Temple on 4 March 1767, Boswell mentioned that the Court of Session’s winter session ‘will be up this day s’enight. I shall then set myself down to my Account of Corsica, & finish it in the Vacation. I have got more materials for it.’119 On 23 March, at Auchinleck, Boswell records that ‘I roused my mind & wrote the Introduction to my Account of Corsica.’120 During the next few days, Boswell was busy collecting materials for his book;121 and on 27 March he began writing the main part and remarked: ‘Could labour well.’122 Writing on 30 March, Boswell informed Temple ‘I am now seriously engaged in my Account of Corsica. It elevates my Soul.’123 He was so eager to make progress, however, that some of his quotations from other works were not entirely accurate.124 Boswell continued to work on his Account of Corsica on an almost daily basis until 1 May, by which time he had completed the bulk of the writing. However, some further work was required. A month later, after his mind had been ‘relaxed by elegant dissipation’, Boswell records: ‘I called myself to my post & wrote Corsica as well as ever.’125 On 22 June, a week before Temple was due to pay him a visit, Boswell informed his friend: ‘You will . . . have my Account of Corsica. How happy am I that my Temple comes to give it his friendly revisal.’ Boswell also mentioned that Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, ‘has given me seven folio pages of Remarks upon it. He says “I am much entertained and instructed.” Is not this noble?’126 David Hume had undertaken to arrange for the Account of Corsica to be published by his publisher, Andrew Millar in the Strand, London;127 but Millar ceased business later in the year and so ‘Hume’s kind interposition was of no avail’.128 On 11 August, Boswell reported to Temple that he had sold the work to another London publisher, Edward Dilly, whose firm of Edward and Charles Journ. 10 Jan. 1767. See p. 57 n. 43. 119 To WJT, 4 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 167. 120 Journ. 23 Mar. 1767. As Pottle observes, JB, in writing the Introduction, ‘began where most authors end’ (Earlier Years, p. 323). 121 Journ. 24–26 Mar. 1767. 122 Journ. 27 Mar. 1767. 123 To WJT, 30 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 182 (see pp. 148–49 n. 2 below). 124 See pp. 52–53 n. 22. 125 Journ. 1 June 1767. 126 To WJT, 22 June 1767, Corr. 6, p. 189. 127 To WJT, 4 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 167; Journ. 15 Feb. 1767. 128 Lit. Car. p. 60. 117 118

16

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 16

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction Dilly would pay one hundred guineas after publication. In the meantime, said Boswell, ‘I shall be close employed all this autumn in revising it, & correcting the proof sheets.’129 It was agreed that the volume would be printed by Robert and Andrew Foulis of Glasgow, who received a substantial part of the draft on 21 August. Boswell started to receive proofs by 2 September. In addition to remarks by Lord Hailes, Boswell received advice from Temple, Sir Alexander Dick and Lord Monboddo. Foulis did not receive the entire work until November and the printing was not completed until late December.130 Boswell reported progress to Temple on 9 September: The proof sheets amuse me finely, at breakfast. I cannot help hoping for some applause. You will be kind enough to communicate to me all that you hear, and to conceal from me all Censure . . . The last part of my Work entitled The Journal of a Tour to Corsica is in my opinion the most valuable. You have not had an opportunity to see it. So soon as I find a sure hand, I will send you it, and you must do me the favour to peruse it with care, & write your observations & corrections on a separate paper.131 On 15 February 1768, Boswell heard from Edward Dilly that the book was ready for publication, whereupon Boswell ordered Adam Neill, the Edinburgh bookseller, to make copies available for sale in Scotland.132 On the day of publication, 18 February, Boswell breakfasted with Lord Hailes and gave him a copy of the book, and later Boswell attended a ball. ‘I . . . felt my own importance’, he wrote. ‘I was quite as I wished to be; only I am positive I had not so high opinion of myself, as other people had. I look back with wonder on the mysterious & respectful notions I used to have of Authours.’133 On 16 March, after the Court of Session’s winter session had ended, Boswell set off for London to enjoy his book’s success and to encourage support for Corsica.134 At York, while sitting in a coffee-house, he has a gratifying conversation about the Corsicans with a Sir George Armytage, who talked very warmly for them & seemed to know a good deal about them. I began to think he must have learnt his knowledge of me. So I asked him if the Corsicans had any

To WJT, 11 Aug. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 200. Earlier Years, pp. 338–39. 131 To WJT, 9 Sept. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 206. 132 Journ. 15 Feb. 1768; Earlier Years, p. 354. 133 Journ. 18 Feb. 1768. 134 Earlier Years, p. 356. 129 130

17

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 17

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction Seaports? ‘O yes sir, said he very good ones. Why[,] Boswell’s Account of Corsica tells you all that.’ Sir! said I what is that? Why Sir said he a Book just now published . . . I have not the pleasure of being acquainted with the Gentleman; but Mr. Boswell is a Gentleman who was abroad & who thought he would pay a visit to Corsica & accordingly went thither and had many conversations with Paoli . . . and he has given its history and a full account of every thing about the Island, and has shewn that Britain should make an alliance with Corsica. But Sir said I can we believe what he says? Yes Sir, said Sir George the book is authentick and very accurate. I was highly pleased.135 Once in London, Boswell calls on his publishers, Edward and Charles Dilly, at their shop in the Poultry. ‘It was comfortable to find myself in the shop where my book was published,’ wrote Boswell, ‘& from the great connection between Authour and Bookseller, I was very kindly received’.136 The first edition of An Account of Corsica, consisting of 3,500 copies, was sold out in six weeks; and a second edition, also consisting of 3,500 copies, was quickly brought out and advertised for 1 April.137 There would be several translations in foreign languages, and a third edition would come out in 1769. ‘In its sale Corsica was the eighteenth-century equivalent of a book-club selection.’138 The reviews, such as those in The Gentleman’s Magazine, The Critical Review and The Monthly Review, were, as Pottle says, ‘not merely long’, but also ‘surprisingly laudatory’.139 However, as Pottle goes on to mention, one aspect of the book that came in for some adverse criticism was the fact that, notwithstanding Boswell’s statement in the Preface that he has ‘endeavoured to avoid an ostentatious display of learning’,140 he has clearly tried to locate and pull in . . . every allusion to Corsica in every Greek and Roman classic and in practically every other author who wrote in the Latin tongue . . . The result, as Georges Deyverdun and Edward Gibbon, the most acid of Boswell’s reviewers, remarked,141 was ‘that kind of erudition which costs little and is worth less’.142

Journ. 20 Mar. 1768. Journ. 23 Mar. 1768. 137 Earlier Years, p. 356; Lit. Car. pp. 61–62. 138 Earlier Years, p. 357. 139 Ibid. (see pp. 244–45 n. 1 below). 140 Corsica, p. xviii; Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 14. 141 In Mémoires littéraires de la Grande Bretagne pour l’an 1768, 1769, p. 139 (in French). 142 Earlier Years, p. 358. 135 136

18

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 18

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction The generally held view (in accordance with Boswell’s own opinion) is that the best part of the book is The Journal of a Tour to Corsica. On 2 May, Samuel Johnson tells Boswell: ‘Sir your Book is very well — The Account may be had more from other Books. But the Tour is extremely well. It entertains every body.’143 Similarly, the review by William Guthrie in The Critical Review commented that the most entertaining part of the work was the Tour ‘because it could not be the result of reading or information’, and went on to remark: ‘Upon the whole, our author has, in the person of Paoli, realized all the ideas which the most vigorous imagination could form of a chief, a patriot, and a legislator, embellished with the ornaments of an understanding cultivated by polite literature.’144 Boswell meets Guthrie in a London coffee-house and Guthrie says: ‘[Y]ou are a Genius. A thousand people might have thought of making themselves famous, before one would have thought of Corsica.’145 The main aim of the Tour was to promote strong emotional support in Great Britain for Paoli and his men.146 In this Boswell was successful. ‘The reading public’, says Pottle, ‘felt for Paoli (whom they knew solely through Boswell’s book) a pitch of veneration for which their own term might have been “enthusiastic”.’147 Indeed, James Burgh, author and educationist, felt moved to write: I do not know of any publication better calculated to rouze in the breasts of degenerate E—men, the expiring flame of Patriotism, than Mr. Boswell’s Account of Corsica. I do not know the author; but I venerate, and I love the man, who shews such love and such veneration for the illustrious Paoli.’148 As Pottle observes: By the publication of An Account of Corsica Boswell became at twenty-seven a literary figure of international reputation. His book could be read in five languages and was the concern of statesmen . . . For many years he was to be known as Corsica Boswell, and though he was to publish two greater books [The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and The Life of Samuel Johnson], he was never again to be so admired, never again to take such unalloyed satisfaction in his fame.149

Notes, 2 May 1768. Johnson would elaborate on his verdict in a letter to JB dated 9 Sept. 1769 (see pp. 311–12 n. 9). 144 Crit. Rev. Mar. 1768, xxv. 178 and 181 (see pp. 275–76 n. 10 below). 145 Journ. 25 Mar. 1768. 146 Earlier Years, p. 362. 147 Ibid., pp. 363–64. 148 Lond. Chron. 12–15 Mar. 1768, xxiii. 244 (see p. 301 n. 5 below). 149 Earlier Years, pp. 367–68. 143

19

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 19

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction

The Douglas Cause The fundamental issue in the great Douglas Cause was whether, on or about 10 July 1748 in Paris, Lady Jane Douglas gave birth to twin boys or whether they were actually supposititious children. Lady Jane, who was born on 17 March 1698,150 and was thus fifty at the time of the alleged birth, was the only sister (and presumptive heiress) of the immensely wealthy Archibald Douglas, Duke of Douglas – ‘a man of weak intellect, violent, unsocial, and unforgiving’.151 Lady Jane was married to Colonel John Stewart, who was born on 29 September 1687152 and was therefore more than ten years older than her. They were married in Edinburgh on 4 August 1746.153 The marriage was kept secret because the Duke of Douglas was entirely opposed to Colonel Stewart, who was a fervent Jacobite and had been active in the 1715 Jacobite Rising. He was handsome, but ‘thoughtless and inconsiderate to a high degree’. Moreover, he was extravagant and virtually penniless, while Lady Jane was dependant on a small allowance of £300 a year from her brother.154 After they were married, Lady Jane and her husband moved to the Continent, thinking that this would avoid the risk that the Duke of Douglas would learn of the marriage. However, in the spring of 1748 Lady Jane wrote to her brother advising him of the marriage and telling him that she was pregnant. And on 7 August 1748 she wrote to him again, informing him that she had given birth to twin sons, Archibald and Sholto, on 10 July.155 The account later given by Lady Jane and Colonel Stewart was that Lady Jane gave birth ‘in Paris, in the lodgings of a woman who let rooms to casual patients [Madame Le Brune], attended by her husband, one confidential female servant or companion of long standing [Mrs. Helen Hewit], and a French army surgeon [M. Pier La Marre, who acted as manmidwife]’.156 It was said that Sholto was a weak, delicate child, that he was sent by M. La Marre to a nurse to be looked after, and that Lady Jane and Colonel Stewart went back to Paris in November 1749 to collect him. By that time, they were very short of funds as the Duke of Douglas had terminated Lady Jane’s allowance.157 In late November, Lady Jane, her husband and the two boys set off for London, where Colonel Stewart would be promptly imprisoned for debt in the King’s Bench Prison. However, in August 1750 Lady Jane was able to obtain a pension of £300 a year from King George II.158 In 1752, after hearing about rumours calling in question the birth of her children, Lady Jane returned to Scotland, anxious to Comp. Bar. iv. 324. Earlier Years, p. 313. 152 Comp. Bar. iv. 324. 153 Ibid. 154 Douglas Cause, pp. 25–26. 155 Ibid., pp. 26–28, 31, 193. 156 Earlier Years, p. 312. 157 Douglas Cause, pp. 30, 34. 158 Ibid., pp. 34, 35. 150 151

20

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 20

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction dispel those rumours and to have her children acknowledged by her brother, the Duke, as his heirs. However, the Duke refused to have anything to do with her, even though she went with the boys to Douglas Castle in early 1753 in the hope that she would be allowed to see him.159 Sholto died in April 1753, aged four. Lady Jane died at Edinburgh not long after, on 22 November, her health having been adversely affected by her grief over the loss of Sholto, who was said to have resembled Lady Jane to an extraordinary degree.160 On 1 March 1758, the Duke of Douglas married Margaret (‘Peggy’) Douglas, who was an ardent supporter of young Archibald’s claim and did much to reconcile the Duke to him. And Colonel Stewart’s fortunes improved, for he succeeded to the baronetcy of Grandtully on 1 November 1759.161 The Duke died, without issue, on 21 July 1761, having executed a deed (at the instigation of his wife, the redoubtable Duchess162) naming as his heir ‘Archibald Douglas Stewart, a minor and son of the deceased Lady Jane Douglas’.163 On 9 September 1761, by virtue of a Disposition and Tailzie of the Duke dated 11 July 1761, Archibald (now calling himself Archibald Douglas) was served nearest and lawful heir of the Duke on the basis of being his nephew. He was soon thereafter put in full possession by virtue of a charter from the Crown.164 However, on 7 December 1762 an action was raised in the Court of Session at the instance of the young Duke of Hamilton, seeking to have Archibald Douglas’s service as heir reduced (that is, set aside) on the ground that he and ‘the other pretended male child of which . . . Lady Jane Douglas was to have been delivered . . . were spurious and were not [her] children’,165 it being alleged that the child called Archibald was truly the son of Nicholas Mignon, a poor Parisian ‘glass-grinder’, and his wife, and had been carried away by foreigners as a baby in July 1748, while the child called Sholto was truly the child of Pierre Sanry, a ‘tumbler’ or ‘rope-dancer’ (i.e. acrobat), and his wife, and had been carried away by foreigners in November 1749.166 This gave rise to protracted litigation (with voluminous legal pleadings), which would not be finally determined until the judgment of the House of Lords in February 1769. A huge amount of evidence was collected, much of it in France. When Boswell was admitted advocate on 29 July 1766, this was near the conclusion of a very lengthy hearing of twenty-one days between 1 July and 1 August, which See letter from Lady Jane to the Duke of Douglas printed in Douglas Cause, p. 234. Douglas Castle was the main Douglas residence until the whole building, apart from the circular tower, was destroyed in a fire in 1755 (MacGibbon and Ross, v. 263–64). 160 Comp. Bar. iv. 324; Douglas Cause, p. 37. 161 Comp. Bar. iv. 324. 162 Essence, p. 12. 163 Douglas Cause, p. 39. 164 Ibid., p. 14. 165 Ibid., p. 15. 166 Memorial for George-James Duke of Hamilton and others, Part III, pp. 264, 272, 293; Earlier Years, p. 313; Essence, pp. 45–46. 159

21

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 21

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction took place ‘to the intense popular excitement of all Scotland’.167 The Court then appointed Memorials to be given in on behalf of each side by 27 September; but the Memorials were not actually lodged until 24 January 1767.168 The Memorial for the Duke of Hamilton and others, by Sir Adam Fergusson of Kilkerran, extended to no less than 886 pages, and the Memorial for Archibald Douglas and others, by Ilay Campbell, was not very much shorter, at 549 pages plus index and appendix. Almost all the intellectuals were on the side of Hamilton; but, as Pottle observes, Boswell ‘sided with the mob’ and became a fervent supporter of Douglas, one reason being that ‘the opportunities for generous sentiment were all on that side’.169 Although Boswell was never engaged as counsel in the cause, he became an active volunteer and campaigner for Douglas.170 When the Hamilton Memorial had been lodged, Boswell composed a song, called ‘The Hamilton Cause’, making fun of Sir Adam Fergusson’s mathematical calculation of the odds in favour of Archibald and Sholto being supposititious children. Boswell’s journal entry for 14 February records that he showed the song to Lord Hailes, who said that it was ‘very witty’ but that Boswell should ‘put it in the fire’, otherwise he would make enemies. Boswell also showed the song to Sir Adam himself and to David Hume and others, all of whom indicated that they liked it and that it contained ‘no venom’ (David Hume saying ‘’Tis not in you’). Thus emboldened, Boswell sings the song in Parliament House in front of an approving circle of advocates. Boswell considered he had ‘the vivada vis of [John] Wilkes’, and he resolved to follow his own plan (which was to publish the song).171 The song appeared in the March

Douglas Cause, pp. 18–19. Ibid., p. 19. 169 Earlier Years, p. 314. It can be argued that JB had a more personal, and profounder, reason for supporting the Douglas camp, for, in Pottle’s words, ‘though Boswell may never have admitted it to himself, Archibald Douglas was a symbol of his own deepest grievance. To a Douglasian, the Cause came down to a vicious attempt to prove the true heir a changeling. Metaphorically, that was what his own differences with his father had amounted to: a reiterated and destroying charge that he was not a true son of Auchinleck’ (ibid., p. 313). As Turnbull puts it, JB suffered from ‘feelings of guilty unworthiness, fostered by the low opinion in which Lord Auchinleck understandably held his erratic son, whom he saw as an inadequate inheritor of Auchinleck’ (Turnbull, ‘Biography and the Union’, p. 165). 170 In 1769, however, after the judgment of the House of Lords in the cause, JB would be instructed on behalf of Douglas in proceedings by Douglas against the Duke of Hamilton and Dunbar Douglas (1722–99), 4th Earl of Selkirk. JB attended a consultation in those proceedings on 7 July 1769 (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, p. 407). ‘I rejoiced’, wrote JB, ‘at being a regular counsel for the great Douglas, for whom I had done so much as a volunteer. Indeed, I received a handsome retaining fee, ten guineas.’ The Duke of Hamilton died, aged only fourteen, on the day of the consultation. JB records that the news of the Duke’s death ‘struck us’ (Journ. 7 July 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 237, McGraw-Hill pp. 222–23; LPJB 2, p. 407 n. 145). 171 Journ. 14 Feb. 1767. 167 168

22

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 22

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction edition of The Scots Magazine.172 That same month, Boswell consents to sing the song at Lord Coalston’s house, where he has been invited for supper along with others, including some young lawyers.173 On the way to Auchinleck later that month, Boswell’s father gives him an account of the Hamilton Memorial. Boswell is ‘Astonish’d at his memory, & how all this time He has never said a word, & yet has it so perfectly. Prodigious strong mind.’174 While staying at Auchinleck, Boswell always reads ‘a little of [the] Hamilton & Douglas Memorials after breakfast’, and his father studies the Douglas Memorial.175 On 14 April, while still at Auchinleck, Boswell starts to write Dorando, A Spanish Tale,176 a biased account of the Douglas Cause dressed up as a Spanish tale; and the following day, in the grand library, he starts dictating the work to his clerk, James Brown. ‘You thought it excellent’, wrote Boswell, and ‘You considered it as an elegant mark of your attachment to the family of Douglas.’ Brown, while writing it, was often ‘struck with admiration, & cried that’s grand’.177 Three days later, Boswell sent the draft for printing to Robert Foulis. ‘Imagined he might perhaps scruple to publish so strong an Allusion to the Douglas Cause’, wrote Boswell. ‘Left him to himself.’178 Boswell received the proof for revision on 27 April.179 The work would be published, anonymously, as a fifty-page pamphlet on 15 June, and a third edition would come out within two weeks.180 After Dorando is treated as an allegory of the Douglas Cause in anonymous articles written by Boswell in various newspapers, the publishers are cited by the Court of Session for contempt of court, and Boswell is instructed to act for John Donaldson, one of the publishers of The Edinburgh Advertiser. The charge against that newspaper also mentions an ‘extract of a letter from Berwick’, being a letter invented by Boswell ‘purporting to be from a Noel Burridge, portrayed as one of five eminent shorthand writers visiting Edinburgh to prepare a report of the speeches of the Court of Session judges in the Douglas Cause’.181 All of the publishers cited are merely reprimanded by the Court.182 After writing Dorando, Boswell continued to study papers in the Douglas Cause and was ‘much entertained’.183 In May, ‘worthy’ Sir Adam Fergusson tells

Scots Mag. xxix. 119. Journ. 5 Mar. 1767. 174 Journ. 19 and 20 Mar. 1767. 175 Journ. 27 and 31 Mar. 1767. 176 Journ. 14 Apr. 1767. 177 Journ. 15 Apr. 1767. 178 Journ. 18 Apr. 1767. Foulis would indeed ‘scruple’ about certain aspects of the draft work (see p. 162 n. 2, pp. 167–68 n. 3). 179 Journ. 27 Apr. 1767. 180 Lit. Car. pp. 28, 34–37; Earlier Years, p. 330. 181 LPJB 1, p. 340 n. 1178. 182 See pp. 158–59 n. 8 below. 183 Journ. 21 Apr. 1767. 172 173

23

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 23

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction Boswell that he wonders that Boswell is still on the Douglas side;184 but Boswell is still full of enthusiasm, and on 20 May composes his song ‘The Douglas Cause’,185 which is published as a broadside.186 All fifteen judges of the Court of Session – the Lord President (Robert Dundas of Arniston) and fourteen Lords Ordinary – gave opinions in the cause, the opinions being given in the Inner House between 7 and 14 July. On 14 July it was ascertained that seven judges had voted in favour of Hamilton and seven in favour of Douglas. The Lord President thereupon gave his casting vote for Hamilton. This outcome provoked a great public outcry and the Lord President received threatening letters. The Douglas camp appealed to the House of Lords.187 One may wonder why there was such popular support for Douglas, who, having been served heir to the Duke of Douglas and having been put in full possession of the huge Douglas estates, was an enormously wealthy landowner, and if successful in the litigation would be secure in his possession. However, as Ross explains, the people ‘were moved by the account of Lady Jane Douglas’s sufferings and angered by the Hamilton rapacity in seeking to augment already enormous wealth by depriving Archibald Douglas of his inheritance’.188 The work which Boswell considered his magnum opus on the Douglas Cause was an eighty-page pamphlet entitled The Essence of the Douglas Cause, which would appear, anonymously, in November. Writing of himself, Boswell would later state that With a labour of which few are capable, he compressed the substance of the immense volumes of proofs and arguments into an octavo pamphlet . . . and as [the Douglas Cause] was thus made intelligible without a tedious study, we may ascribe to this pamphlet a great share of the popularity on Mr. Douglas’s side, which was of infinite consequence when a division of the House of Lords upon an appeal was apprehended . . . He also took care to keep the newspapers and other publications incessantly warm with various writings, both in prose and verse, all tending to touch the heart and rouse the parental and sympathetic feelings.189 Pottle describes the Essence as ‘a calm, dignified, systematic, and lucid presentation of the case for Archibald Douglas’.190 It should be mentioned, however, Journ. 8 May 1767. Journ. 20 May 1767. 186 For details of the song, see pp. 189–90 n. 3. 187 BEJ, pp. 56–57; see also Douglas Cause, pp. 20 and 184; Scots Mag. 1767, xxix. 387–89. 188 Ross, p. 134. 189 Boswell, ‘Memoires’, pp. 325–26, reprinted in Lit. Car. p. xxxv. 190 Earlier Years, p. 340. 184 185

24

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 24

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction that, as the work was written after the Court of Session had given its judgment and after the speeches of the judges had been published, Boswell had the advantage of seeing those speeches, some of which, particularly the speech of Lord Monboddo, would have been very helpful.191 Boswell would write that the Douglas Cause ‘shook the sacred security of birthright in Scotland to its foundation’,192 and in the ‘Advertisement’ in the front matter of the Essence he argued: Neither the question with regard to general Warrants [that is, John Wilkes’s challenge to the legality of general warrants193], nor any other question which has occurred for many years, has been so alarming as THE DOUGLAS CAUSE, which threatens a total destruction of the invaluable security of BIRTHRIGHT, in comparison of which all questions of Liberty or Property are but of inferior moment. However, what the Douglas Cause and John Wilkes’s challenge to the legality of general warrants had in common was that they aroused in equal measure huge popular support backed up by the fury of the mob.194 Boswell uses the word ‘birthright’ in the same sense as ‘filiation’, and in the Essence he advances the following argument: Filiation or birthright is of all things the most valuable to mankind; for all the blessings and comforts of life, the succession of property and of honours, all the rights and all the affections of blood flow from it: therefore it is that the wisdom of law hath been particularly careful that the birthright of the subject should be inviolably protected . . . Therefore it is, that according to law, to ascertain the birthright of the subject, so as to entitle him to succeed to the greatest estate and honours,

191 That Boswell had seen the published speeches is confirmed by the fact that the title page of his work Letters of the Right Honourable Lady Jane Douglas, which appeared only a few days after the Essence (Earlier Years, p. 340), contains quotations from the speeches of Lord Alemoor and Lord Hailes which are clearly taken from pages 73 and 107 of the Almon edition of the speeches (for which, see p. 326 n. 8). 192 Hebrides, p. 16. 193 For which, see pp. 108–10 n. 6. 194 Neither the Douglas camp nor Wilkes sought the support of the mob. While the ‘most vocal and enthusiastic promoters’ of the political slogan ‘Wilkes and Liberty’ were ‘the unenfranchised craftsmen and journeymen’, Wilkes’s supporters were made up of a wide range of ‘distinctive social groups’, including ‘City merchants [and] the “middling” and lesser freeholders of Middlesex’ (Rudé, pp. 183–84, 197). Wilkes’s ‘disdainful attitude to the lower social orders was illustrated by the frequent disparaging remarks about his followers’ (Thomas, p. 219).

25

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 25

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction nothing more is required than his being acknowledged by two married persons as their child, and being commonly reputed to be so . . . Holding it therefore as an inviolable principle of law, that a subject acknowledged by a husband and wife as their child, and believed to be so in the country where he was born, is thereby fully vested in the possession of the sacred privilege of birthright: I also hold, that according to law, on which we all depend for protection, he must retain this possession till those who seek to deprive him of it do show that he enjoys it upon a false supposition . . . It is therefore incumbent upon those who attack the birthright of a subject to prove their accusation.195 According to Boswell, therefore, the Douglas Cause turned primarily on a question of law; and since Lady Jane Douglas and Sir John Stewart had acknowledged Archibald as their child, the burden of proof was on anyone seeking to challenge his filiation. William Guthrie’s review of the Essence in The Critical Review shows that he was persuaded by Boswell’s reasoning, for, after expressing the view that the work was ‘extracted from the legal proceedings with great judgment’, he went on to say that Archibald Douglas had ‘a right to the benefits of filiation’, having been ‘owned by a man and a woman, lawfully joined in marriage, to be their legitimate issue’.196 In the Essence, Boswell also emphasized certain factual arguments tending to show the Hamilton case as incapable of being believed, such as the following compelling points (also mentioned in the speeches of Lord Strichen and Lord Monboddo) ridiculing the Hamilton argument with regard to the child Sholto: [Lady Jane and Colonel Stewart] give it out that they had twins, when one child was sufficient for their purpose. And they give out that the youngest twin was a weakly delicate child, though they had then only one child in their possession. The next year they go back again to Paris; they again run the same desperate risque; and pick up a second child. And when they were in such poverty that for many months they were obliged to burn and sell the lace off their cloaths, in order to procure themselves subsistence; at this very time they chose to take the burden of no less than two children belonging to other people. What was, if possible, still more wonderful, this second weakly child, which they picked up by mere chance, answered exactly to the description which they had given of Sholto, then youngest son, for sixteen months before, and was the very picture of Lady Jane.197 Essence, pp. 3, 4 and 7. Crit. Rev. Nov. 1767, xxiv. 380–81, at 380 (see pp. 275–76 n. 10 below). 197 Essence, p. 62. 195 196

26

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 26

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction At the end of November, a few days after the publication of the Essence, there appeared another anonymous work by Boswell on the Douglas Cause: namely, Letters of the Right Honourable Lady Jane Douglas. In this 160-page volume, as Pottle observes, the letters were ‘skilfully and not very scrupulously abridged to heighten the pathos of Lady Jane’s story’.198 William Guthrie’s review in The Critical Review remarked that the ‘unaffected simplicity, endearment, and tenderness which breathe through these Letters . . . are so inimitable, that a reader of the smallest discernment may safely pronounce them to be the undisguised effusions of a good heart’.199 In Pottle’s opinion, Lady Jane’s letters were more influential in securing the verdict for Archibald Douglas than all the ponderous tomes of Proofs and Memorials put together. The House of Lords practically decided the issue on the supposed character of Lady Jane Douglas, and it was this book more than any other which established Lady Jane’s character in the public mind.200 In January 1768, while staying at Arniston as a guest of the Lord President, whose casting vote had determined the Court of Session proceedings in the Douglas Cause in favour of the Duke of Hamilton, Boswell went out for an hour with the President in the President’s ‘chariot’ and talked ‘freely’ about the cause. ‘Heard how it struck him in its various points’, wrote Boswell. ‘Saw how foolish the suspicions against him were. Resolved to take men as I find them.’201 The following day, Lord Auchinleck, who was also staying at Arniston, ‘remarked how foolish & wicked evil-speaking was. The President afforded a good instance, as so many false reports had been raised against him as to the Douglas Cause.’202 During his visit to London in the spring, Boswell would have two remarkable conversations with Lord Chief Justice Mansfield. Mansfield was one of the two law lords in the House of Lords, and his opinion in Archibald Douglas’s appeal (which would be heard in February 1769) would be crucial. During the first conversation, Boswell, who is ‘determined if possible to be at him on the great cause’, is allowed to talk freely about the cause, and in particular about the published speeches of the Court of Session judges, which Mansfield says he has not read. Boswell criticizes Lord Kames for making ‘a very poor speech’, by virtue of being ‘unprepared’ and expecting merely to vote. Lord Alemoor, on the other hand, says Boswell, made ‘a very eloquent Speech’, and Lord Monboddo ‘made an admirable Speech & with great dignity’. As to Boswell’s father, Lord Auchinleck, Boswell

Earlier Years, p. 340. Crit. Rev. Nov. 1767, xxiv. 375–79, at 375 (see pp. 275–76 n. 10 below). 200 Lit. Car. p. 50. 201 Journ. 3 Jan. 1768. 202 Journ. 4 Jan. 1768. 198 199

27

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 27

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction expresses the view that he ‘made a solid sensible Speech’. Boswell then discusses the speech of the Lord President: A terrible outcry has been raised though to be sure most unjustly in regard of his giving an opinion contrary to his conscience; but . . . it was not well in the President of a court to employ his supposed superiour talents in making a violent harangue for the Pursuers. He even says in direct terms that he will not touch on the arguments on the other side . . . His manner was so violent & then unluckily his whole speech from beginning to end is without the least foundation in the evidence. He has read it with very little attention & trusted to the Pursuers Memorial which is a most unfair paper. ‘What made the Judges on the Hamilton side so obnoxious’, Boswell tells Mansfield, ‘was their maintaining that there was no law in the cause’, notwithstanding filiation, ‘that great principle of law’.203 The House of Lords would deliver its judgment in the Douglas Cause on 27 February 1769, finding in favour of Douglas and overturning the decree of the Court of Session. Although Douglas was successful, it seems that Boswell’s blatant attempt to influence Mansfield on the legal principles involved was unproductive, but it may be that Mansfield was influenced by Boswell’s Letters of the Right Honourable Lady Jane Douglas. Compared to his normal standard, Mansfield’s speech was considered to be very poor as it did not contain any detailed analysis of the evidence and was ‘an unvarnished appeal to the peers’ emotions – and to their aristocratic snobbery’.204 There would be sheer drama in Edinburgh when the result of the appeal became known: Ilay Campbell, who was one of the counsel for Douglas, set off straight away on horseback to announce the outcome to the citizens of Edinburgh, who were eagerly awaiting news. On the evening of 2 March he arrived in Edinburgh and went to the Cross, where he waved his hat in the air and cried, ‘Douglas for ever!’ The entire town then erupted in joyful celebration. Householders in favour of the outcome illuminated their windows, many toasts were made to the health of Douglas and his supporters, and bonfires were lit in various places. Boswell, after calling on his father to tell him the ‘glorious news’ (to which Lord Auchinleck reacted ‘very coolly’), went to the Cross to find out what was happening. Matters then became rather more Notes, 20 May 1768. Poser, p. 346. See also p. 329 n. 38 below.

203 204

28

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 28

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction serious, for the mob, after marching up and down the streets, decided to break the windows of those who had failed to illuminate, paying particular attention to the windows of the Lord President and the Lord Justice-Clerk. It seems that Boswell took a leading part in these activities, and it is thought that he was the witty gentleman who is said to have remarked as stones were thrown at the Lord President’s windows that the members of the mob were giving their casting votes. Several of the judges (such as Lord Auchinleck) who had voted for Douglas but, in support of the Lord President, refused to illuminate, had their windows broken too. The mob even tried to break down the Lord President’s door, much to the alarm of his family; and the following morning he was jostled when carried to the Parliament House in his chair and was put in considerable fear of physical harm. However, order was finally restored when two troops of dragoons were summoned to guard the streets.205

Love-making and Matrimonial Possibilities When the twenty-five-year-old Boswell returned to Scotland in March 1766 after his grand tour, he considered that it was time he found himself a suitable wife. During the years 1766 to 1768, there were several ladies with whom he seriously contemplated matrimony; but through much of this period he simultaneously carried on a passionate affair with a mistress and continued his dalliances with prostitutes. Since the autumn of 1763, Boswell had been considering marriage to the Dutch intellectual Belle de Zuylen (otherwise known as ‘Zélide’), whom he had met in Utrecht. While in Corsica in 1765 he had decided that he loved her, but he had not declared this to her.206 Notwithstanding his undeclared love for Belle de Zuylen, Boswell told Temple in March 1766207 that he would ‘probably’ marry Elizabeth Diana Bosville, whom he had met in London in February208 and would later refer to as his ‘yorkshire Beauty’.209 BEJ, p. 76. See also Ramsay, i. 173 n. 1; Omond, ii. 65–66; Lond. Chron. 11–14 Mar., 18–20 Apr. 1769, xxv. 248, 370; Earlier Years, pp. 398–99; From GD c. 12 Mar. 1769, Corr. 7, p. 156. 206 From Belle de Zuylen, 16 Feb. 1768, Holland, Heinemann pp. 357–58, McGrawHill p. 368. For Belle de Zuylen, whose full name was Isabella Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken, and who wrote under the name Zélide, see pp. 214–15 n. 1, and for a detailed account of JB’s relationship with her see Earlier Years, pp. 137–45, 149, 175, 187, 209–10, 223, 270–73, 290, 318, 337, 344, 348, 356, 374, 383–86. For JB’s correspondence with her, see Holland, Heinemann pp. 285–373, McGraw-Hill pp. 293–385. 207 To WJT, 6 Mar. 1766, Corr. 6, p. 142. 208 Mem. 16 Feb. 1766, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 300, McGraw-Hill p. 284. 209 Journ. 16 Jan. 1768. 205

29

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 29

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction However, in May 1766, Boswell paid a visit to the popular health resort of Moffat (in the Annandale district of Dumfriesshire), famous for the mineral water from the local well. When he had been there a week, he wrote to Temple informing him that the reason for this visit was ‘to wash off a few scurvy Spots which the warmer climates of Europe had brought out on my skin’ and that he had struck up an amorous liaison with another visitor there, a young lady called Mrs. Dodds.210 He did not name her in his letter to Temple, and even in his journal he normally referred to her as ‘Miss’, ‘Miss –––– ’ or ‘Mrs –––– ’; but he discloses her name in his journal entry for 3 March 1767.211 Little is known about Mrs. Dodds, but Boswell told Temple that she had married ‘very young’, that she had three children (from whom she was separated212), and that her husband, who had ‘used her shockingly ill’, had deserted her and was living with another woman.213 In many ways Mrs. Dodds was an alluring character. Boswell describes her as pretty, young, cheerful, vivacious, amiable, lively and enchanting, as well as generous, tender and kind. Crucially, she was ‘admirably formed for amourous dalliance’ and ‘paradisial in bed’.214 The problem was that she came with a past, for she had had previous lovers, and this caused Boswell endless anguish. Boswell and Mrs. Dodds continued their affair in Edinburgh, where Mrs. Dodds obtained lodgings (or perhaps Edinburgh was her normal place of residence), while Boswell continued to live in his father’s house.215 Several of Boswell’s journal entries in February 1767 describe encounters with Mrs. Dodds, each time with her dressed in black, which Boswell evidently found particularly enticing. On one such occasion, she said that the next night she would ‘wear black & let candles burn to keep you longer’.216 However, writing to Temple on 4 March, Boswell explained that he was becoming concerned about the cost of the relationship, was feeling tied down by To WJT, 17 May 1766, Corr. 6, pp. 148–49. He would also evidently name her in a letter to WJT in Mar. 1767, perhaps inadvertently, as he deleted the name, which remains nonetheless legible (To WJT 30 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, pp. 181 and 182–83 nn. 1 and 6). 212 To WJT, 30 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 181. 213 To WJT, 1 Feb.–8 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, pp. 165, 169. 214 Ibid., pp. 166, 169. 215 Earlier Years, pp. 291, 529. As Pottle observes, From WJT, 20 Nov. 1766, Corr. 6, p. 159, ‘shows that the affair had been going on in Edinburgh for some time before that date’ (Earlier Years, p. 529). Lord Auchinleck’s house was on one of the floors of a tenement known as Blair’s Land on the east side of Parliament Close (now known as Parliament Square), situated behind the great Church of St. Giles (BEJ, pp. 3 and 12; see also Journ. 13 Jan. 1777, Extremes, p. 76; Journ. 8 Jan. 1780, Laird, p. 164; Earlier Years, p. 455). In a letter to JJ dated 15 Feb. 1763, JB had mentioned ascending the Custom House stairs to reach the residence (Corr. 1, p. 46). The reference to the Custom House stairs enables us to deduce that the residence was on the east side of Parliament Close, for Maitland states that the Custom House was situated there (Maitland, p. 187). 216 Journ. 21 Feb. 1767. 210 211

30

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 30

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction it, and was increasingly plagued by jealousies rising in his breast on account of the previous affairs of his ‘sweet little Mistress’.217 Writing on 8 March, Boswell gave Temple an account of recent events.218 Thinking of parting from her, he had gone to Mrs. Dodds and told her of his unhappiness, but did not explain the reason. She ‘took this very seriously’, and the next day she was ‘much agitated’, accusing Boswell of using her ‘very ill’. But there was then a happy reconciliation: Her eyes were full of passion. I took her in my arms. I told her what made me miserable . . . She said I should not mind her faults before I knew her, since her conduct was now most circumspect. We renewed our fondness. She owned She loved me more than She had ever done her Husband. All was again well . . . I embraced her with transport.219 Notwithstanding this pleasing outcome, Boswell was not prepared to forgo dalliances with other women; and that very evening, says Boswell, he went out and became ‘so much intoxicated’ that he ended up at ‘a low house in one of the Alleys in Edinburgh’ where he knew ‘a common Girl lodged’.220 As to his matrimonial possibilities, Boswell, writing on 4 March, told Temple that he was afraid that Elizabeth Diana Bosville ‘would be too fine for this northern air’; and he mentioned that Belle de Zuylen had been in London over the winter but that he had never heard from her. ‘She is a strange Creature’, wrote Boswell. ‘Sir John Pringle attended her as a Physician. He wrote to my Father “She has too much vivacity. She talks of your Son without either resentment or attachment” . . . I am well rid of her.’221 Another potential wife now appears on the scene – a former ward of Lord Auchinleck’s, the eighteen-year-old Catherine Blair of Adamton, in Ayrshire. On 1 March, she sits in the Boswells’ seat in the New Kirk in St. Giles’ and is described by Boswell as a handsome, stately woman with a ‘good countenance’.222 She was heiress to the estate of Adamton and was highly regarded by Lord Auchinleck as a suitable wife for Boswell. On 11 March, Boswell records liking her ‘more & more, without any fever’.223 When he visits Mrs. Dodds on 14 March, Boswell provokes her ‘with old stories’. But, again, there is a reconciliation: ‘You grew fond. Her eyes look’d like precious stones. Some delirium seised you. She seemed an angel.’224 Three To WJT, 1 Feb.–8 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 166. See pp. 130–31 below. 219 To WJT, 1 Feb.–8 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, pp. 167–68. 220 Ibid., p. 168. 221 Ibid., p. 167. See below, p. 222 n. 11 and pp. 214–15 n. 1. 222 Journ. 1 Mar. 1767. 223 Journ. 11 Mar. 1767. 224 Journ. 14 Mar. 1767. 217 218

31

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 31

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction days later, Boswell calls on an Edinburgh landlady and secures a home for Mrs. Dodds by paying over all the money which he had earned as an advocate over the winter. The next day, says Boswell, when his friend Andrew Erskine reminds him of all the ‘scandalous stories’ about Mrs. Dodds, he is so ‘revolted’ that he resolves ‘to break free from slavery’.225 During the journey from Edinburgh to Auchinleck over the next two days, Boswell writes a letter to Mrs. Dodds intimating an end to their relationship. At Auchinleck, Boswell reflects comfortably on his ‘emancipation from Circe’. And he wonders ‘with astonishment is it really true that a Man of such variety of Genius, who has seen so much, who is in constant friendship with General Paoli, is it possible that He was all last winter the slave of a woman without one elegant quality?’226 Boswell informs Temple that he is considering matrimonial possibilities again: ‘I intend next autumn to visit Miss Bosville in Yorkshire. But I fear my lot being cast in Scotland, that Beauty would not be content. She is however grave. I shall see.’ He also mentions Catherine Blair of Adamton, describing her as genteel, sensible, good tempered, cheerful and pious, with ‘an agreable face’.227 On 27 April, Boswell records that he has received a letter from Mrs. Dodds telling him that she is pregnant: I was very composed — half delighted to obtain what I had wished, And half vexed, to think of the expence &c [ — ] a curious example of the vanity of human wishes . . . I resolved to behave with honour & generosity & pleased my fancy with a thousand airy plans.228 In May, Boswell rides out to see Catherine Blair’s estate of Adamton. ‘[S]aw every part of the estate, fine land, large orchards[,] good house but in disorder. Saw Miss B’s cradle[.] [R]ocked it, that in speaking of her age, I might say I had rocked her cradle.’229 The following month Boswell is full of enthusiasm for Miss Blair, whom he refers to as ‘the finest Woman I have ever seen’. She and her mother had stayed at Auchinleck for four days, during which time Boswell had ‘adored her like a Divinity’ in the ‘romantic groves’ and felt that she looked ‘quite at home in the house of Auchinleck’.230 Boswell immaturely thinks that he has to put the object of his affections on a pedestal to be worshiped; or, as Brady puts it:

Journ. 18 Mar. 1767. Journ. 21 and 22 Mar. 1767. 227 To WJT, 30 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 182 (see pp. 148–49 n. 2 below). 228 Journ. 27 Apr. 1767. 229 Journ. 21 May 1767. 230 To WJT, 12 June 1767, Corr. 6, p. 187 (see p. 201 n. 3 below). 225 226

32

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 32

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction He had to idealise her, to convince himself that he lay entirely in her power, to adore her ‘like a divinity’ in the romantic groves of Auchinleck. And divinity was not an end Miss Blair was shaped to . . . Boswell’s reports of her conversation show her to have been naïve and candid, a straightforward Scots young lady far from the Dulcinea del Toboso or even Cleopatra that his ‘feverish constitution’ demanded.231 The 1767 journal breaks off shortly after this point, but we know from Boswell’s correspondence with Temple that on 23 June, after his return to Edinburgh, he got himself ‘quite intoxicated’ when ‘drinking Miss Blair’s health’ and ‘went to a Bawdy-house & past a whole night in the arms of a Whore’.232 He later reports that he is suffering from an acute attack of gonorrhoea and that he fears that Mrs. Dodds may also be infected as he had ‘been with her several times’ since his ‘debauch’. He worries that the consequence may be that ‘an innocent Being’ could be injured. As to Miss Blair, Boswell declares ‘I am certainly not deeply in love’, but he adds ‘I have a more serious attachment to her than I ever had to any body.’233 In late August, Boswell tells Temple that he regards it as his duty to be kind to Mrs. Dodds while she bears his child. ‘She comes & drinks tea with me once or twice a week. This connection keeps me reasonable in my attachment to the Princess [Miss Blair].’234 In November, Boswell, writing from Auchinleck, reports that Mrs. Dodds has ‘shared in my late misfortune; but she is quite well again and in a forthnight hence, I expect a young friend’.235 Boswell tells Temple on 24 December that Mrs. Dodds ‘has brought me the finest little girl I ever saw. I have named it Sally. It is healthy and strong. I take the greatest care of the Mother; but shall have her no more in keeping.’236 On 18 December, Boswell goes to a concert with Miss Blair. ‘The Princess appeared distant and reserved . . . I was then uneasy.’ Next evening, he was with her at a performance of Othello. ‘I sat close behind the Princess, and at the most affecting scenes, I prest my hand upon her waist. She was in tears, and rather leaned to me. The jealous Moor described my very soul . . . Still I thought her distant and still I was uneasy.’ On Sunday he met her at church. ‘She was distant as before.’ Next morning, Boswell waits on her and she does not seem distant. I told her that I was most sincerely in love with her . . . I . . . asked her to be candid & fair as I had been with her, & to tell

Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. xix, McGraw-Hill p. xvii. To WJT, 26 June 1767, Corr. 6, p. 192. 233 To WJT, 29 July 1767, Corr. 6, pp. 197–98. 234 To WJT, 29 Aug. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 203. 235 To WJT, 8 Nov. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 213. 236 To WJT, 24 Dec. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 219 (see p. 167 n. 2 below). 231 232

33

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 33

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction me if she had any particular liking for me . . . I really, said she have no particular liking for you. I like many people as well as you . . . She said that to see one loving her would go far to make her love that person; but she could not talk any how positively, for she never felt the uneasy anxiety of love.237 Lord Eglinton advises Boswell that he was ‘right to be honest’ with Miss Blair, that ‘her answers were very clever’ and that ‘it was probable she liked’ Boswell; but Eglinton feels that Boswell ‘did not shew her attention enough’. Eglinton’s advice, says Boswell, is that ‘I should tell Miss B–– if I have any chance I’ll do all in my power to be agreable. If not, I’ll make myself easy as soon as possible.’ As to Miss Bosville, Eglinton remarks that she ‘would not do so well –– that she would be miserable in this country’, and he quotes ‘a blunt saying of the highlanders, that a Cow fed in fine lowland parks was unco bonny; but turned lean and scabbed when she was turned out to the wild hills’.238 While still pursuing Miss Blair, Boswell writes to Belle de Zuylen on 10 January 1768, declaring his love for her.239 Belle replies: Allow me to remark that you certainly take your time for everything. You waited to fall in love with me until you were in the island of Corsica; and to tell me so, you waited until you were in love with another woman and had spoken to her of marriage. That, I repeat, that is certainly to take one’s time.240 Boswell was not dispirited by this response. Writing to her on 26 February, he said: To be plain with you my dear friend I want your advice. I am now I think a very agreable man to those who know my merit and excuse my faults. Whether do you think that you and I shall live happier as distant correspondents, or as partners for life?’241 In spite of telling Miss Blair in December 1767 that he was most sincerely in love with her, and notwithstanding his declaration of love for Belle de Zuylen on 10 January, Boswell found it appropriate on 19 January, after drinking too much at the anniversary meeting of the Faculty of Advocates, to visit a ‘fine lass’ by the name of Jeany Kinnaird, with whom he spent an hour and a half and was ‘most

Ibid., pp. 217–19. Journ. 16 Jan. 1768. 239 Journ. 10 Jan. 1768. The letter is not reported. 240 From Belle de Zuylen, 16 Feb. 1768, Corr. 7, pp. 20–21 (see pp. 214–15 n. 1 below). Her letter is in French. The translation is taken from Holland, Heinemann pp. 357–58, McGraw-Hill p. 368. 241 To Belle de Zuylen, 26 Feb. 1768, Corr. 7, p. 32 (see p. 250 n. 1 below). 237 238

34

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 34

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction amorous’. ‘I felt now’, he wrote, ‘that the indifference of the Heiress had cured me, & I was indifferent to her.’242 Even less to his credit, Boswell, at the end of January 1768, went to Mrs. Dodds and ‘renewed gallantry’.243 As Pottle remarks with regard to this ‘relapse’, Boswell was ‘clearly using her as a convenience’.244 He ‘renewed’ again on several occasions in February. However, Mrs. Dodds then drops out of the picture and there would be no further reference to her in Boswell’s records until 24 August, when he tells Temple, ‘I have given up my criminal intercourse with Mrs ––––.’245 On 8 February, after hearing a rumour that Miss Blair was engaged to Sir Alexander Gilmour, Boswell asks her whether she is engaged or not. She seemed reserved. I said You know I am much in love with you, & if you are not engaged I would take a good deal of trouble to make myself agreable to you. She said ‘you need not take the trouble. Now you must not be angry with me.’246 Boswell tells Temple that he went on to say: ‘What then . . . have I no chance? No said She.’ Boswell accordingly concludes that ‘All is over between Miss Blair and me.’247 ‘My spirit’, Boswell says, ‘was such that though I felt some regret, I appeared quite easy & gay.’248 ‘Now that all is over,’ he tells Temple, ‘I see many faults in her, which I did not see before . . . I am honourably off, and . . . I am very easy and cheerful.’249 However, in December 1768 Boswell would inform Temple that he had been ‘two or three times’ at Adamton and ‘upon my word the old flame was kindled’. Nevertheless, Miss Blair said that, while she had ‘a very great regard’ for Boswell, she did not like him enough to marry him. And her mother told him that it was his fault that he was not married to her daughter, for, says Boswell, ‘I had made such a joke of my love for the heiress in every company, that she was piqued, & did not believe that I had any serious intentions’.250 In March, Boswell tells Temple: ‘Do you know my charming Dutchwoman & I have renewed our correspondence; and upon my soul, Temple, I must have her.’251 However, on 2 May, Boswell records in his notes for his journal:

Journ. 19 Jan. 1768. Journ. 31 Jan. 1768. 244 Earlier Years, p. 350. 245 To WJT, 24 Aug. 1768, Corr. 6, p. 242 (see p. 243 n. 8 below). 246 Journ. 8 Feb. 1768. 247 To WJT, 8 Feb. 1768, Corr. 6, pp. 222–23 (see pp. 239–40 n. 1 below). 248 Journ. 8 Feb. 1768. 249 To WJT, 8 Feb. 1768, Corr. 6, p. 223 (see pp. 239–40 n. 1 below). 250 To WJT, 9 Dec. 1768, Corr. 6, p. 244 (see pp. 239–40 n. 1 below). 251 To WJT, 24 Mar. 1768, Corr. 6, p. 227 (see p. 250 n. 1 below). 242 243

35

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 35

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction ‘Lett[er] from Zelide – termagant.’252 The letter is not reported, but Boswell complains to Temple: Could any Actress at any of the Theatres attack one with a keener (what is the word not fury something softer––). The lightening that flashes with so much brilliance may scorch. And does not her esprit do so? Is she not a termagant or at least, will she not be one by the time she is forty? And she is near thirty now . . . I have written to her that we are agreed. ‘My Pride (say I) & your vanity would never agree.’253 On 29 March, while in London, Boswell, by his own estimation, is ‘despicable’ for descending to ‘the very sink of vice’.254 He spends the whole night with a ‘red haired hussey’ at her house. ‘Horrid room; no fire no curtains — dirty sheets &c.’255 A week later, as a result of this and subsequent incidents referred to cryptically in Boswell’s notes,256 and on pages subsequently torn from his journal and notes,257 the usual consequences ensue and he is confined to his room for six weeks. The final reference to Mrs. Dodds and Sally would be in the journal entry for 23 June 1769, in which Boswell states: ‘Grange and Dr. Cairnie drank tea with me, and consulted as to my managing with economy that unlucky affair of Mrs. ––––.’258 Johnston and Dr. Cairnie had also assisted with regard to the affair of Boswell’s first illegitimate child, Charles, who was born on or about 7 December 1762 and died in 1764 (his mother being Peggy Doig, with whom Boswell had had a relationship in Edinburgh). It is probable that Sally died in infancy, for if she had lived there would almost certainly have been some further references to her. As Pottle and Brady observe, we know from the previous case of Charles that Boswell was not one to ignore his parental responsibilities. He would not have given an illegitimate daughter the advantages of a daughter of the house, but he would certainly have kept in touch with her, and would have made such provision for her care and upbringing as the gentlemanly code demanded.259 Notes, 2 May 1768. To WJT, 14 May 1768, Corr. 6, p. 236 (see p. 311 n. 1 below). 254 Journ. 30 Mar. 1768. 255 Notes, 29 Mar. 1768. 256 Notes, 30 Mar. 1768; undated notes (see p. 303). 257 Earlier Years, pp. 376–77. 258 Journ. 23 June 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann pp. 227–28, McGraw-Hill pp. 213–14. 259 Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 228 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 214 n. 2. For Peggy Doig and Charles, see LJ 1762–63, pp. 292–93 (Journ. 28 July 1763), 353 n. 4, 411 n. 6, 522 n. 1, 522–23 n. 3; To JJ, 24 Nov. 1762, Corr. 1, pp. 24–25; Earlier Years, pp. 79–80, 84, 94, 98. For a detailed discussion of the matter with regard to Mrs. Dodds and Sally, see Earlier Years, pp. 351–54. Pottle remarks that what came of JB’s ‘lively mistress and her child is the prime mystery of his biography’ (ibid., p. 352). 252 253

36

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 36

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction As to seeking a suitable wife, the irony is that the person whom Boswell would ultimately marry (on 25 November 1769) was someone he had known for the whole of his life: his first cousin, Margaret Montgomerie, of Lainshaw in Ayrshire. It is a curious fact that in the journals prior to 1769 she is scarcely mentioned. At one point she seems to fall within the category of ‘&c’.260 Boswell would not realize that he truly loves her until she accompanies him on a trip to Ireland for the purpose of visiting a new object of his affections: Mary Ann Boyd (‘la belle Irlandaise’), the sixteen-year-old daughter of a wealthy attorney in Dublin. Boswell and Margaret Montgomerie depart for Ireland at the beginning of May 1769, and on 3 May Boswell writes to Temple informing him of the position: I am accompanied by my cousin Miss Montgomerie . . . and she perhaps may & perhaps ought to prevent my hibernian Nuptials. You must know that she & I have allways been in the greatest intimacy. I have proved her on a thousand occasions, & found her sensible agreable & generous. When I was not in love with some one or other of my numerous flames, I have been in love with her; & during the intervals of all my passions Margaret has been constantly my Mistress as well as my friend.261 Allow me to add that her person is to me the most desireable that I ever saw. Often have I thought of marrying her, & often told her so. But we talked of my wonderful inconstancy, were merry, & perhaps in two days after the most ardent professions to her, I came & told her that I was desperately in love with another woman. Then she smiled, was my confidante, & in time I returned to herself. She is with all this, Temple, the most honest undesigning creature that ever existed . . . I find her both by sea & Land, the best companion I ever saw. I am exceedingly in love with her. I highly value her. If ever a Man had his full choice of a Wife, I would have it in her. But the objections are She is two years older than me. She has only a Thousand Pounds. My father would be violent against my marrying her, as she would bring neither money nor interest.262

Journ. 7 May 1767. JB uses the word ‘mistress’ in the sense of a ‘woman having dominium over a person or regarded as a protecting or guiding influence’ (SOED, I. 5). 262 To WJT, 3 May 1769, Corr. 6, p. 246. The letter was probably not sent until 16 June 1769 (see p. 359 n. 1 below). Lord Auchinleck reluctantly agreed to the marriage. JB records that although his father ‘thought my scheme of marriage improper and that Margaret and I would part in half a year, yet as I insisted for it he would agree’ (Journ. 4 Aug. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 262, McGraw-Hill p. 246). 260 261

37

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 37

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction In a letter to George Dempster, Boswell refers to Margaret Montgomerie’s ‘most desireable person like a heathen goddess painted alfresco on the cieling of a palace at Rome’ and comments on her ‘admirable sense and vivacity’.263 As Brady observes: Margaret Montgomerie emerges as the most real figure in the Boswellian gallery of women, partly because . . . the ways in which Boswell saw her converge with what she was actually like . . . Essentially she was a strong woman, neither hard nor aggressive, but patient and enduring . . . Boswell slowly began to realise that love was more important to him than fortune . . . Their mutual love and respect gave each confidence and a sense of value . . . Boswell had found the woman who best suited him.264

Conclusion The period covered by this volume was one of intense activity on Boswell’s part, particularly the year 1767, which Pottle refers to as an annus mirabilis for Boswell: Mrs. Dodds, Sally, the Princess, common girls, three different bouts of gonorrhoea; John Reid, Robert Hay, meal rioters, nearly a hundred civil causes; Dorando, The Essence of the Douglas Cause, Letters of Lady Jane Douglas, ballads, shorthand men; a 400-page book on Corsica written and seen through the press, paragraphs galore of ‘fact’ and ‘invention’ in the newspapers – no later single year in Boswell’s life will show so much variety and perhaps none will show so much achievement.265 This ‘feverish existence’, says Pottle, was to Boswell ‘a state to be desired and cherished. Life to be worth living must move on the plane of ecstasy.’266 The early part of 1768 continues in much the same vein. ‘Election Causes’ keep Boswell busy in the Court of Session; he serves as one of the counsel for the defence in the trial of John Raybould in the Justiciary Court; his Corsica is published; he speaks freely with the Lord President about the Douglas Cause; he renews ‘gallantry’ with Mrs. Dodds; he pursues his courtship of Catherine Blair (but to an unsuccessful conclusion); and he resumes his correspondence with Belle de Zuylen, declaring his love for her (the correspondence ultimately resulting in a final breach). To GD, 4 May–21 June 1769, Corr. 7, p. 171. Search of a Wife, Heinemann pp. xx–xxi, McGraw-Hill pp. xvii–xviii. 265 Earlier Years, p. 348. 266 Ibid., pp. 317–18. 263 264

38

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 38

27/02/23 6:13 PM

introduction To cap it all, the journal Boswell kept from March to April 1768 narrating his visits to London and Oxford is one of the finest he ever wrote and contains a record of several memorable scenes witnessed by him, such as his attendance at Tyburn indulging his obsession with public executions by seeing two hangings (one of a highwayman and the other of an attorney convicted of forgery), and his presence at the Guildhall during the general election to see the candidates for the four City of London seats standing on the hustings, one being his friend John Wilkes, the mob all the while roaring ‘Wilkes and Liberty!’ Boswell’s notes for his journal in London give a detailed account of two remarkable conversations with Lord Mansfield in May during which, as already noted, Boswell spoke at length about the speeches of the Court of Session judges delivered in the Douglas Cause, and sought Mansfield’s views on the main point in the cause of John Smith v. Archibald Steel in which Boswell had a reclaiming petition before the Court of Session. In addition, Boswell felt that he convinced Mansfield of the importance of Corsica; was thoughtless enough ‘to talk of Wilkes’, which Mansfield ‘did not relish’;267 and got rather out of his depth discussing the plea of parliamentary privilege stated by his friend George Dempster in the private prosecution against him in Scotland on charges of bribery and corruption. And the journal in London and Oxford contains a record of several pithy sayings which would find their way into the Life of Johnson, such as Johnson’s wellknown response to Boswell’s query as to whether it is dishonest for an advocate to plead a cause he knows to be bad: Sir you dont know it to be bad, till the Judge determines it . . . [Y]ou are to state your facts fairly . . . An argument which does not convince you yourself may convince the Judge before whom you plead it; and if it does not convince him, why then Sir you are wrong & he is right. It is his business to judge, & you are not to be confident in your opinion, but to say all you can for your Client, and then hear the Judge’s opinion.268 As to Boswell’s quest for a suitable wife, he comes to realize in 1769 during his jaunt to Ireland that the love of his life is his cousin, Margaret Montgomerie.

Notes, 22 May 1768. Journ. 26 Mar. 1768. See also Life ii. 47.

267 268

39

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 39

27/02/23 6:13 PM

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 40

27/02/23 6:13 PM

THE JOURNALS

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 41

27/02/23 6:13 PM

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 42

27/02/23 6:13 PM

1766

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 43

27/02/23 6:13 PM

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 44

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 [JB’s journal broke off with his entry, in London, for 23 February 1766,1 eleven days after his return to London from his European travels, and would not be resumed until January 1767.2 He returned to Edinburgh about 7 March.3 The Court of Session’s 1766 summer session ended on 11 August. The following day, JB and his father travelled from Edinburgh to Auchinleck4 for the autumn vacation. It seems likely that it was at Auchinleck that JB started to compile the following memoranda, notes and jottings.5] I remember I once maintained that the pleasure of mere pure Idleness was now & then very great. I was laughed at for this thought; & I began to think it absurd. However several years after I now find it authorised by Cicero lib: 2. De. Orat.6 ‘Mihi liber non videtur, qui non aliquando nihil agit: in qua permaneo sententia, meque cum huc veni, hoc ipsum nihil agere & plane cessare delectat.’7 ________________________________ A man of refined taste and feelings is not to wonder when dull Common sense Mortals laugh at his qualitys. They do so as a clown8 would laugh at a picture of Raphael’s9 or an air of Sassone’s,10 from mere ignorance. [p. 2]11 Voi erate felice di non say more foolishly e di veder poco female part &c. Vedete sta mattina Mr. Logan12 &c —13 __________________ Pomfret Cakes14 to Mr Hugh15 — __________________ Stanley’s Switzerland J. Tonson 1714.16 [p. 3] I am allways an Advocate in behalf of men who have a great deal of fancy; for I have experienced the advantages & the inconveniencies17 of it. Often when I was reading, inordinate Fancy has forced into my mind so many ideas, that when I closed the Book, I could not absolutely say what was in the Book & what not. Just so after having seen anything or heard any story a Man of fancy instantaneously sees many circumstances which would be an improvement. He rolls them in his mind & imperceptibly they are so mixed with the reality that He cannot distinguish which is which. I would therefore be cautious in receiving the relations of a Man of fancy; not because He wishes to tell a lie, but because He may very probably be mistaken. [p. 4] When at Glasgow,18 Get Sir John Davies’s Account of Ireland,19 and a copy of Gentleman’s Oroonoko.20 Get Muirhead21 or some other Professor to shew you the Passages in Livy and other ancient Historians, where the Dominion of Carthage and Rome over Corsica is mentioned; and take a particular note of the Pages.22 Look also into 45

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 45

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 Voltaire’s General History,23 from which You may certainly take some Extracts with regard to the brave Islanders. Search the College Library, & enquire at the Literati for any Books on Corsica. [p. 5] Send General De Paoli24 Bolingbroke on Patriotism.25 Transcribe from D’Argens26 Lettres Juives27 or rather The English Translation28 as to Corsica & Theodore.29 You know the hurt of familiarity [ — ] To have David a friend30 for life be most carefull to avoid it with him.31 A man’s happiness or misery depends on little intimate circumstances known only to himself. The very lining of one’s32 breeches makes one uneasy & that surely is known to none but oneself.33 [p. 6]34 See Zachary Boyd’s Bible35 Mems for My Lord36 To write James Bruce about Perches37 Marbles to Miss Annie38 Books to McLauchlan39 ___________ Against Johnson Spei altera.40 Hadrian says Animula vagula[.]41 a vita Ital said a Husband a french Lady Mar[ried] would make pretty figure.42 Thesaur43 [p. 7]44 John Main in Auchingray.45 John has heard nothing of this for four months otherwise he would have marked the days. He met Wilson after the cross of the Carnwarth46 road.47 Avete copia di de a Popa Pa.48 [p. 8] John Reid. His habite & repute owing to his having had the misfortune to be tried & tho acquitted by a verdict of his Country, ignorant people still suspicious of him.49 He has lived in Mr. John McLeod’s Barony50 till within these 51 years being born — .52 Mr. John Gillon53 could attest his character as he liv’d within a mile & a half of him & was employ’d by him. About the end of Octr. or in Nov54 John Maine in Auchingray & his Family Parish of Monkland [p. 9] Get Pitcairne to clean Pistols55 — 46

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 46

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 Mem: to ask at Mr. William Logan56 for The Precognition57 as to the Witches of Calder.58 There is only one copy of it extant that I know of. Also for Dicite .59 At Ayr60 or with Doctor Mcquhae61 look in the book of the Odyssey.62 ω ˙ φιλ63 is the § just before it & τον δι αυτε προσεειπε64 the very . Mark what line it is in the greek & look at the latin of it.65 Achenskichs66 — [p. 10] Is not Diod. Sicul. a Latin?67 Get at Ayr a Tea-Chest with two keys one for Father & one for self. Ask James Templeton of the Excise68 when & how he made of Cabbage & Colliflower leaves cabbage Seed. 69 Orr Paxton against Johnston70 [p. 11] The greatest merit vanishes before self-praise, like chaff before the wind. Gentleman’s Trip to the Moon71 ————————————————— Quanto plus propinquorum, quo major affinium numerus, tanto gratiosior Senectus. Tacit. De. Mor. Germ.72 ————————————————— Curious Description of Ale. Potui humor ex ordeo aut frumento in quandam similitudinem vini corruptus. Tacit. De Mor. Germ.73 ————————————————— Grief Feminis lugere honestum est: Viris meminisse.74 [p. 12] Stories Lord Aboyne75 in Chas: 2’s time who had his graceless neighbour brought in sack to his table to pray & make confession. Lord Aboyne’s lines on Mr. A Gray.76 Baron Dalrymple77 with Provost Wightman78 & seat at Church. — With his Daughter Betty79 & Wig. — With Lord Stair80 & Servants — With Hearse — With Mr. Andrew McDougal.81 Blount82 who wrote Oracles of reason83 & wanted to marry Sister in law — with Abp. of Cant — Death by Law of England —84 47

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 47

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 [p. 13] Dalziel85 8 Novre 1766 I tempi solenne hanno gran effetto, sopra un animo spirituoso com’ é il mio. Cento anni fa di questa casa venne la Donna divota Anna Hamilton86 a la famiglia di Auchinleck. dunque seriosamente, Io faccio risoluzione di accordar con Padre, di far un ligo di Amicizia che Lui mai vi burlera vi dira delle cose dure avanti il mondo — ma vi dira tutto in privato. Essendo giusto che adesso quando voi siete arrivato a l’independenza di un essere raggionevole Lui anche sagrifica qualche cosa e per questo avete la sua promessa e il suo mano e fidatesi securo a questo. Ma accordate che quando Lui scorda, voi dovete [p. 14] ricordarlo. Della altra parte promettete che voi sarete sempre attento a tutte le sue inclinazione e che voi siete tanto Padrone di se che pottete esser senza gratificazione alcuna, quando il vostro dovere vi chiama di star da lui, e che siete capace di viver senza alcun altro motivo che l’antica famiglia, e la Corsica. Avendo fatta questa accorda sarete uniti, sarete fidi l’un a laltro e tenerete segreto del mondo questo miro cambiamento. Lo vederanno, e il Padre e voi diranno Siamo felice insieme; ma Il mondo non ne sapera la raggione. Cosi Lui vi diro tutte le sue affare in confidenza. Voi sarete calmo e orgoglioso colla sua protezzione l’antica famiglia sera onorata e more Lui o more voi averete consolazione e speranza in Dio d’un miglior vita. [Solemn anniversaries have great influence on an imaginative mind like mine. One hundred years ago that pious lady Anna Hamilton came from this house to the Family of Auchinleck. Seriously touched by this reflection, I resolve to reach an agreement with my father, to make a friendly covenant that he is never to ridicule you or say harsh things to you before others, but is to tell you all in private. It is just that now you have arrived at the independence of a rational being, he should make some sacrifice too; and for this get his promise and his hand and trust in them securely. But let it be agreed that when he forgets, you are to remind him. On your side, promise that you will always be attentive to all his inclinations, assure him that you are sufficiently master of yourself to be able to forgo any gratification whatsoever when your duty calls you to stand by him, and that you are able to live without any other aim than the ancient Family and Corsica. Having made this accord, you will be united, you will be loyal to each other, and you will keep this wonderful change secret from the world. They will see the effects of it, and your father and you will say, ‘We are happy together’, but the world will not know the reason. In consequence, he will tell you all his affairs in confidence. You will be calm and proud under his protection, the ancient Family will be honoured, and whether he die or you die, you will have consolation and hope in God of a better life.87] 4. Corr. 5, p. 56 n. 1. 5. This collection of memoranda, notes and jottings (undated except for pages 13–14, ‘Dalzell 8 Novre 1766’), designated ‘J 11.1’ in the Yale editors’ cataloguing

1. Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 313, McGraw-Hill p. 297. 2. See below, p. 69 and n. 1. 3. Defence, Heinemann p. 3, McGrawHill p. 2.

48

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 48

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 in a consecutive sequence of three on this topic. JB translates the passage as: ‘That man is in my mind not fully free, who is not sometimes doing nothing; of which opinion I constantly remain; and since I came to this place, I have taken a delight in just doing nothing, and, as it were, absolutely ceasing’. (The misprint ‘neque’ appeared for ‘meque’.) In the essay, JB expands the context of the memory here recorded: ‘I remember having endeavoured seriously to maintain in conversation, many years ago, against a writer of some note, who is himself a prodigy, for incessant activity of mind, either in wisdom or folly, that the pleasure of pure idleness was now and then very great. I was laughed at for this thought, and I began to fear it was absurd; for a volatile flight in Horace will not bear up an opinion. I have, however, had the satisfaction to find the thought justified by the authority of Cicero . . . ’ (Bailey, ii. 18–19). JB does not identify the ‘writer of some note’, but may have had in mind his father’s judicial colleague James Burnett (1714–99), Lord Monboddo (admitted advocate 17 Feb. 1737, appointed sheriff-depute of Kincardineshire 1760, and appointed Lord of Session 12 Feb. 1767 (Fac. Adv., p. 25; College of Justice, pp. 531–33; see also pp. 102–03 n. 4 and 122 n. 3 below). The first three volumes of Monboddo’s six-volume work Of the Origin and Progress of Language had appeared in 1773, 1774 and 1776 respectively. It was in the first of those volumes (at p. 238) that Monboddo famously stated: ‘[T]hat there are men with tails . . . is a fact so well attested that I think it cannot be doubted.’ This belief was mocked by many and was widely considered to be a risible folly (BEJ, p. 558). 8. Dict. SJ defines ‘clown’ as ‘1. A rustick; a country fellow; a churl. 2. A coarse, ill-bred man.’ 9. Raffaello Santi (1483–1520), known as Raphael, celebrated Italian High Renaissance painter and architect. JB had recorded enraptured experiences of viewing Raphael’s works while on his travels

system, occupies an ‘[o]ctavo notebook . . . [of] 6 unpaged leaves’ with ‘12 sides and the inside front and back covers written on’ (Catalogue, i. 8). The notebook was initially designated ‘J 11.8’ in the cataloguing system (and is so referred to in Earlier Years, p. 532, third note to p. 301). 6. Cicero, De Oratore (On the Orator), II. vi. 24. 7. The full quotation, which JB abridged (removing the elements of dialogue in the original) and slightly misquoted (omitting ‘enim’ after ‘Mihi’ and ‘esse’ after ‘liber’) in his transcription, is: ‘Tum illud addidi: “Mihi enim liber esse non videtur, qui non aliquando nihil agit.” In qua permaneo, Catule, sententia; meque, cum huc veni, hoc ipsum nihil agere et plane cessare delectat’ [‘And I added also the proposition, “For to my mind he is no free man, who is not sometimes doing nothing.” To that view, Catulus, I still adhere, and it is just this inaction and utter idleness that charm me on my comings to this place.’] (Sutton and Rackham, pp. 214–15). JB no doubt consulted this work in the fine library of classics and other works assembled at Auchinleck House by his father, Lord Auchinleck, who had continued and built on the work of collecting begun by earlier lairds, especially his own father, James Boswell (1672–1749), 7th Laird of Auchinleck (Journ. 1, Index, p. 398). For a list of the numerous works of Cicero in the library there, see Boswell’s Books, pp. 156–60.   The anecdotes in this notebook, along with the Latin tags, mottos and quotations, are early signs of the way JB gathered ideas for future writing projects, including what would become his methods and approach in his series of seventy monthly essays for the Lond. Mag. as ‘The Hypochondriack’. Fourteen years later, JB would repeat the same theme in very similar terms, quoting this passage as he had rendered it in the notebook (only replacing ‘&’ with ‘et’), in one of his Hypochondriack essays, ‘On Country Life’ (No. XXXVI, Sept. 1780, Bailey, ii. 15–21, at p. 19). The essay is the first

49

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 49

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 12. Probably William Logan of Castlemains (b. 1717; d. after Oct. 1795), writer in Ayr, notary public (admitted 19 Feb. 1745), sheriff-depute substitute of Ayrshire (appointed in or about 1761), member of the Society of Writers in Ayr (1773) (McClure, ‘William Logan’; Finlay, i. 238 (no. 1256)). 13. For ‘felice’, read ‘felici’. JB’s Italian has been translated by F. A. Pottle (notes to J 11.1) as: ‘You [plural] were lucky to not say more foolishly and to see a little female part &c. See this morning Mr. Logan &c’. JB’s meaning here does not emerge, and this remark is not otherwise explained. 14. ‘Pomfret’ was a contemporary pronunciation of Pontefract, a market town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, where liquorice had been grown since the midsixteenth century. Pomfret cakes, made from liquorice, were circular discs, about 1½ inches in diameter, bearing an impression of the gateway of Pontefract Castle (N & Q, July–Dec. 1886, 7th Series, ii. 274). They were used for medicinal purposes for both people and horses. From about 1760, George Dunhill, a local apothecary, started to manufacture a sugared version. ‘In this lay his reputation as creator of the “Pontefract Cake” in 1760, though the true market for the confectionary product developed rather later’ (Chartres, pp. 128–29). 15. Possibly a reference to Hugh Campbell (d. 1782) of Mayfield, in the parish of Galston, Ayrshire (Ayrshire, p. 306). He was a great-grandson of David Boswell (d. 1713 (Auch. Fam. Memoirs)), 6th Laird of Auchinleck, and was thus a distant cousin of JB (Ominous Years, Chart VI, p. 379; see also Corr. 7, p. 183). JB’s later journals show that relations between the Boswell and Campbell families were close. JB appears to be reminding himself to purchase the Pomfret cakes during a forthcoming visit to Glasgow. He and his father were due to go to Glasgow to attend the Western Circuit of the High Court of Justiciary appointed to sit at Glasgow from 11 Sept. (Scots Mag., 1 Sept. 1766, xxviii. 500). The word ‘to’ in

in Italy the preceding year: ‘ . . . walked to San [Pietro] in Monte and saw the famous “Transfiguration” of Raphael: quite rich’ (Mem. 25 Feb. 1765, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 54, McGraw-Hill p. 51); ‘Cieling by Raphael partly done by his Scholars. It represents the loves & marriage of Cupid and Psyche, and is nobly done. The Gods and Goddesses and other divine Beings are shewn in strong character’ (19 Apr. 1765; Yale MS. M 101.9, Notes on the Villa Farnesina); ‘Yesterday . . . went . . . to Vatican and saw pictures; most rich. In noble spirits, and thoughts of immortality and seeing Raphael, &c’ (Mem. 3 June 1765, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 90, McGrawHill p. 86). 10. Johann Adolph Hasse (1699– 1783), known as Il Sassone (‘the Saxon’), German composer of operas in the Italian style. His compositions, renowned for attractive melodies, were immensely popular in his lifetime. JB had praised an opera by ‘old Sassone’ in his journal in Turin, 20 Jan. 1765 (Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 40, McGraw-Hill p. 38). This opera was probably L’Olimpiade, which appears to have been performed at Turin during the carnival of 1765 (see title page of the libretto of the work referring to the carnival (Bayerische StaatsBibliotek Digital, ). In eighteenth-century Italy, the carnival period was 26 Dec. to Shrove Tuesday (falling in Feb. or Mar.) (Bach, p. 407). Hasse’s music also had been on offer in London at the time of JB’s return from Europe and shortly before his arrival in Scotland. The King’s Theatre, Haymarket, advertised several performances from mid-Feb. to early Mar. of ‘a serious Opera call’d ARTASERSE’, with ‘The Music of Signor HASSE’ (Pub. Adv. 17 Feb.–1 Mar. 1766). JB’s journal, which, as noted above, breaks off in the entry for 23 Feb., makes no mention of this opera, but he may have been aware of it. 11. This page of the notebook, apart from the last two lines, is written in pencil.

50

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 50

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 208); JB thought similarly of Corsican freedom’ (Corr. 6, pp. 210–11 n. 5). 17. MS. ‘ies’ written over ‘y’. 18. That is, when JB would be in Glasgow attending the Western Circuit of the High Court of Justiciary appointed to sit at Glasgow from 11 Sept. (see n. 15 above). 19. Sir John Davies (1569–1626), A discoverie of the true causes why Ireland was neuer entirely subdued, nor brought vnder obedience of the crowne of England, vntill the beginning of His Maiesties happie raigne. Printed exactly from the edition in 1612, London, printed for A. Millar, opposite Katharine Street in the Strand, 1747. A copy of the book is listed (as ‘Sir John Davies’s Account of Ireland . . . Lond. 1747’) in JB’s ‘Handlist’ (c. 1771) of the books in his Edinburgh townhouse in James’s Court (Boswell’s Books, #956, p. 174). 20. Francis Gentleman (1728–84), Oroonoko: or the royal slave. A tragedy. Altered from Southerne, by Francis Gentleman. As it was Performed at the Theatre in Edinburgh, with universal Applause, Glasgow, printed by Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1760. Gentleman dedicated this book to JB, who was a friend of his. Lit. Car., pp. 292–93, reprints the dedication to JB and refutes the idea that it was written by JB and not Gentleman. Gentleman, who was of an Anglo-Irish military family, was a dramatist, essayist and actor. His most enduring work, The Dramatic Censor (1770), was one of theatrical criticism ‘which attempted to adjudicate between scholarly criticism and the demands of popular taste’ and eulogized the Shakespearian acting of his contemporary David Garrick (Oxford DNB; see also p. 62 n. 71, and Corr. 9, pp. 13–15 nn. 1–3). ‘Gentleman may have become acquainted with JB as early as the 1758–59 Edinburgh season, during which JB enthusiastically attended the theatre [in the Canongate] in spring 1759. Gentleman appears to have joined the Canongate company in late summer or early autumn 1758, when he became “acting manager”’ (Corr.

‘to Mr Hugh’ would appear to be a Scotticism meaning ‘for’ (DSL (DOST, 10(a)). 16. ‘Stanley’ is JB’s slip for ‘Stanyan’. An Account of Switzerland, by Abraham Stanyan (c. 1670–1732), was published in 1714 by J. Tonson, the Strand, London. Stanyan was a career diplomat, ‘distinguishing himself under Queen Anne as’ Envoy Extraordinary to Switzerland, 1705–14 (Sedgwick, ii. 441). Here JB begins noting books and authors he wishes to consult as he works on his Account of Corsica (which would appear in Feb. 1768). It seems that he hopes to accomplish this work during his forthcoming visit to Glasgow (see preceding note). On page 4 of the notebook he lists two books to get ‘[w]hen at Glasgow’ and reminds himself to ask one of the professors at Glasgow University to show him certain passages in Livy and ‘other ancient Historians’, and also tells himself to ‘[s]earch the College Library, & enquire at the Literati for any Books on Corsica’. Stanyan’s Account of Switzerland would figure in exchanges between JB and WJT in late 1767, when JB sent his friend ‘a Copy [i.e. in ms.] of my Corsican Journal’ for his ‘remarks & Corrections’ (to WJT, 2 Oct. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 209). In his reply (19 Oct. 1767), WJT would send his hopes ‘that this book will do you some credit & make it remembered a century hence, that there was one James Boswell. I fancy you expect at least to be named with a Stanyan & a Molesworth’ (Corr. 6, p. 210). (Robert, 1st Viscount Molesworth (1656–92), had been ambassador to Denmark 1689–92, and in 1694 published An Account of Denmark as it was in the year 1692.) After the publication of An Account of Corsica, WJT would report that ‘I place it on the same shelf with Stanyan & Molesworth’ (From WJT, 21 Apr. 1768, Corr. 6, p. 231). On the significance for JB of Stanyan, who was ‘a Whig and a member of the Kit-Kat club’ (Sedgwick, ii. 441), the editor of Corr. 6, Thomas Crawford, notes that ‘To Stanyan, the “commonwealths” of Switzerland were analogues of ancient Greece ([Stanyan,] p.

51

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 51

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 9, p. 13 n. 1). After having been ‘dropped’ by the Edinburgh company, Gentleman ‘had gone to Glasgow, where he appears to have [made] a meagre living by giving lessons in elocution’ (Earlier Years, p. 44), and was in Glasgow, where he saw JB, at the time JB attended the university there (see next note). Pottle suggests that Gentleman may have encouraged JB in the publication of A View of the Edinburgh Theatre during the Summer Season, 1759, containing an Exact List of the Several Pieces represented, and Impartial Observations on Each Performance, a pamphlet of fifty pages (‘by a Society of Gentlemen’) which appeared in mid-Feb. 1760, published by A. Morley, the Strand, London (Earlier Years, p. 44). Gentleman had at some point presented a copy of his play, bound with two musical pieces, to JB’s father. In June of next year he would write to JB asking to borrow it back: ‘I very much want a Copy of my Oroonoko and the two Musical pieces which were done at Glasgow; I did myself the Honour to present them bound together to Lord Auchinleck’ (From Gentleman, 23 June 1767, Corr. 5, pp. 179 and 180 n. 8; he would write again making the same request on 6 Feb. 1770). In Pottle’s assessment, ‘Lord Auchinleck would have been deeply displeased by the View and Oroonoko, for he had sent [JB] to Glasgow to get him out of the way of just such foolishness’ (Earlier Years, p. 45). 21. George Muirhead (c. 1715–73), appointed Professor of Humanity (i.e. Latin) at Glasgow University in 1754, which chair ‘he occupied with distinction for the remainder of his life’. He studied divinity at Edinburgh University, graduating M.A. in 1742; was appointed minister of Monigaff parish, Wigtownshire, in 1746; and was transferred (as second charge) to Dysart parish, Fife, in 1748, but relinquished that position after being elected Professor of Oriental Languages at Glasgow University in 1752 (Oxford DNB). JB had attended Glasgow University in 1759–60, having completed his last session in the

Arts course at Edinburgh College in 1757– 58, after Lord Auchinleck, displeased by the life his son and heir was leading in Edinburgh, informed him in Sept. of 1759 ‘that he was not to return to Edinburgh as he had been planning, but was to continue his studies’ at Glasgow (Earlier Years, p. 42). JB initially spoke well of his teachers here, mentioning in particular, in a letter to JJ (11 Jan. 1760, Corr. 1, pp. 6–10), Adam Smith (1723–90), Professor of Moral Philosophy, and Hercules Lindsay (d. 1761), Professor of Civil Law, but he abruptly terminated his studies on 1 Mar. 1760 by running away to London (Earlier Years, pp. 46ff.) In Sept. 1771, when JB would host Paoli’s visit to Scotland, Muirhead would be among the Glasgow professors gratefully named in JB’s ‘An Authentick Account of General Paoli’s Tour to Scotland, Autumn 1771’, who ‘shewed the university to great advantage’, and entertained Paoli and his entourage ‘with wine and sweat [sic] meats in the library’ (Lond. Mag. Sept. 1771, pp. 433–34; Facts and Inventions, pp. 37–38). 22. Livy (Titus Livius) mentions Rome’s rule over Corsica in various places in his history of Rome, Ab Urbe Condita (‘From the Foundation of the City’). The passages cited by JB in Corsica are in Book 42, Chapter 7 (cited at pp. 49 and 62 (Boulton and McLoughlin, pp. 47 and 55)), the Periochae (i.e. summary) of Book 17 (cited at p. 61 (Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 55)), the Periochae of Book 20 (cited at p. 62 (Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 55)) and Book 40, Chapter 34 (cited at p. 62 (Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 55)). The Periochae of Book 17 (which is in respect of the period 260–256 b.c.) narrates that the consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio fought successfully in Corsica against the Corsicans and the Carthaginian commander Hanno. The Periochae of Book 20 (which is in respect of the period 241–219 b.c.) mentions that, when the Corsicans revolted, they were suppressed. Book 40, Chapter 34, refers to a battle in 180 b.c. between the Corsicans and the praetor Marcus Pinarius,

52

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 52

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 23. Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) (1694–1778), whom JB had met at Ferney and with whom he had much spirited conversation while spending two nights under his roof in late Dec. 1764 (Journ. 1, pp. 316–25, Corr. 6, pp. 123–25), produced a complete edition of his Essai sur l’histoire générale, et sur les mœurs et l’esprit des nations, depuis Charlemagne jusqu’à nos jours in 1756, and an English translation of it came out in 1758 in three volumes entitled General History and State of Europe (printed for Alexander Donaldson, opposite to the Exchange, Edinburgh). Confusingly, the 1758 edition had additional title pages, engraved, reading: ‘The Universal History & State of All Nations From the Time of Charlemain to Lewis XIV’. JB did not, in the event, quote from this book in An Account of Corsica. 24. JB wrote to Paoli on 24 Apr. 1766, but the letter has not been reported (Corr. 5, p. 23). On 27 Aug. 1766, he acknowledged receipt of a letter from Paoli (From John Dick to Paoli, 6 Oct. 1766 (Corr. 5, p. 69)). Presumably JB wrote back to Paoli some time after 27 Aug. 1766. On 22 Nov. 1766, James Bruce (1719–90), overseer of the Auchinleck estate, who is soon to be named in these jottings, would write to JB that ‘Sixteen quarto pages from General Paoli’ (being a letter dated on or about 20 Oct. 1766, not reported (Corr. 5, p. 74)) had arrived at Auchinleck (Corr. 8, p. 11). 25. Henry St. John (1678–1751), styled 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, A Letter on the Spirit of Patriotism to Lord Cornbury, 1736, published in Letters, on the Spirit of Patriotism: on the idea of a patriot king: and on the state of parties, at the accession of King George the First, London, 1749, pp. 9–54, and in The Works of the late Right Honorable Henry St. John Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, 5 volumes, published by David Mallet in London in 1754, Vol. 3, pp. 3–34. As mentioned in the preceding note, Paoli sent JB a long letter on or about 20 Oct. 1766. If JB sent Bolingbroke’s work to Paoli, his letter may have acknowledged receipt.

who slew some 2,000 Corsicans and obliged them to give hostages and 100,000 pounds of wax. Book 42, Chapter 7, narrates that in 173 b.c. the praetor Gaius Cicereius, after defeating the Corsicans in battle, having slain some 7,000 of them and captured more than 1,700, required them to give 200,000 pounds of wax. Although in his reference at p. 62 to Book 40, Chapter 34, and in his references at pp. 49 and 62 to Book 42, Chapter 7, JB states that the tributes of wax mentioned there were annual tributes, the passages from Livy say nothing about the tributes being paid annually. Also, with respect to Book 42, Chapter 7, JB at p. 62 states that the number of Corsicans killed by Cicereius was 1,700 and the number of prisoners was upwards of 1,070, whereas, as mentioned above, the numbers stated by Livy were 7,000 and 1,700 respectively. (Boulton and McLoughlin, at p. xli, after observing that JB’s quotations sometimes ‘show surprising deviations from the original’, go on to remark: ‘Such variations suggest that Boswell worked at speed. By and large an accurate scholar, he was occasionally impatient to move on.’) For English translations of the passages cited by JB, see Rome’s Mediterranean Empire, p. 235 (Periochae of Book 17), p. 237 (Periochae of Book 20) and p. 38 (Book 42, Chapter 7), and Dawn of the Roman Empire, p. 516 (Book 40, Chapter 34). Other works cited by JB in connection with Rome’s rule over Corsica are at p. 61 (Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 55) (Lucius Annaeus Florus, Epitome rerum Romanarum (‘Epitome of Roman History’), Book 2, Chapter 2, in respect of the conquest of Corsica by Lucius Cornelius Scipio), and at p. 62 (Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 56) (Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder), Naturalis Historiae, Book 15, Chapter 38 (incorrectly cited by JB as Book 5, Chapter 29), in relation to the triumph held on the Alban Mount by the general Papyrius Maso – incorrectly spelled Naso by JB (possibly a misprint) – to celebrate his victory over the Corsicans in 71 b.c.).

53

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 53

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 but during his confinement and after was modestly maintained by the British government. He married in 1751, and in 1756 was allowed to move into lodgings with his wife (Gasper, pp. 9, 105, 113–15, 120, 124–26, 129, 137, 139, 142, 144–45, 147–49, 151– 53, 157, 166–68, 170, 185, 195–203, 208– 09, 224, 226–28, 247–48, 252–53, 264–65). Although he is generally portrayed as an ‘adventurer’, it has been argued that a person ‘who led the Corsican rebellion, advocated universal religious tolerance and the abolition of slavery, cannot be dismissed as a mere petty rogue or adventurer . . . As a strategist, a politician, and a military commander he was very able indeed’ (ibid., p. 2). Vol. 2 of The Jewish spy contains a dedication, ‘To his pretended Majesty Theodore I. King of Corsica’ (pp. iii-vii), where it was argued that Theodore treated the Corsicans with too much severity and that, to make himself more popular, he should follow the example of various great men ‘who with all their valour and courage were always ready to pardon’ (p. vi). In Letter 55 (Vol. 2, pp. 103–12) d’Argens refers to Theodore as a ‘powerful Magician’, and, with regard to Theodore’s becoming king of Corsica, remarks that ‘Nothing but Time can unravel so extraordinary an Adventure, which the more we examine we are the more surprized at a thousand Incidents that render it the more marvellous and romantic’ (p. 106). D’Argens observes further that the Corsicans had ‘given a check to the monarchical Authority’ and that Theodore had ‘a great deal of Power to do good, but not the least Authority to do harm’ (p. 108). In Letter 71 (Vol. 2, pp. 235–42) d’Argens queried whether, in the event of the Corsicans driving the Genoese out of Corsica, and all the population recognizing Theodore as their king, the monarchs of Europe would be prepared to recognize him as a lawful sovereign (p. 236). The only parts of The Jewish spy referred to by JB in Corsica were a passage, quoted on p. 51 (Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 48), from Letter 55 (Vol. 2, p. 105) where d’Argens applies to Corsica certain lines

26. MS. The apostrophe appears to have a stroke below it. 27. Jean-Baptiste de Boyer (1704–71), Marquis d’Argens, Lettres Juives, ou, Correspondence philosophique, historique & critique, entre un Juif voyageur en différens etats de l’Europe & les correspondans en divers endroits, The Hague, 1742. 28. The Jewish spy: being a philosophical, historical, and critical correspondence, by letters, which lately passed between certain Jews in Turky, Italy, France, &c. Translated from the originals into French, by the Marquis d’Argens; and now done into English, 5 vols, 3rd ed., London, 1765–66. For JB’s use of this work, see next note. 29. Theodore von Neuhoff (1694– 1756), a German who, in Apr. 1736, was proclaimed king of Corsica by the islanders, who believed that he could rid the island of the tyranny of the Genoese. Although he initially had some considerable successes in his war against the Genoese, he was hampered by the disloyalty of some of his commanders, particularly the envious Giacinthio (or Giacinto) Paoli (1681–1763), the father of Pasquale Paoli. Theodore left the island in Nov. 1736 to go to the Continent with a view to raising more funds, troops and provisions. He returned in Sept. 1738, having sent large quantities of munitions to the island, which was now occupied by French troops (sent ostensibly to support the Genoese but actually to try to acquire Corsica for France). After distributing arms and ordering the siege of strategically significant fortified sites, he sailed around the island, but, in the absence of any signal from his supporters, he headed for Naples. In 1739–42, Theodore continued to enlist men, and in Jan. 1743 he returned to Corsica on a British naval vessel, but the expedition was not a success. Apart from Aug. 1755 to May 1756, when he was with a British naval squadron which sailed to the Mediterranean and delivered supplies to the Corsican rebels, Theodore lived in London from 1749 until his death. He was imprisoned for debt for many years,

54

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 54

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 in Meeter (1644), and Scriptural Songs or Holy Poems (1645), all of which are retellings of biblical stories. Two other collections of verse, the Four Evangels and Zion’s Flowers, or, Christian Poems for Spiritual Edification, were never published, except for four of the poems of Zion’s Flowers, brought out in 1855 by the Edinburgh bibliophile Gabriel Neil’ (Oxford DNB). His poetical versions of Biblical narrative gained the nickname of ‘Boyd’s Bible’, although there is no book of this title. Evidence such as Univ. of Glasgow Spec. Coll. MS Gen 151 shows that versions of his unpublished poems also circulated in manuscript. 36. Meaning obscure. Judges in the Court of Session and High Court of Justiciary were addressed in court as ‘My Lord’. JB is possibly referring to his father. ‘Mems’ may be short for ‘Memorials’. However, there is no reference in the Consultation Book to any Memorials drafted by JB during the autumn vacation of 1766. The very first legal paper JB drafted was a Memorial dated 1 Aug. 1766, but the next reference in the Consultation Book to a Memorial drafted by JB is not until 15 Jan. 1767 (LPJB 1, pp. 370, 372). ‘Mems’ may also be short for ‘Memoranda’ or ‘Mementos’. 37. James Bruce (for whom, see p. 53 n. 24) had written to JB on 29 July 1766 (Corr. 8, pp. 9–10) mentioning that Lord Auchinleck had asked one of the vassals on the Auchinleck estate to get more pike. ‘Lord Auchinleck may have required more pike to restock his fish pond at Tenshillingside’ (Corr. 8, p. 10 n. 6). JB possibly wanted to suggest stocking perch as well. However, this may have been no more than an intention, for there is no evidence that JB actually wrote to Bruce on the matter. Given that Bruce lived at Auchinleck, it seems that JB is now in Glasgow to attend the Western Circuit of the High Court of Justiciary. On 18 Mar. 1769, JB would write to Sir Alexander Dick (for whom, see pp. 96–97 n. 3) informing him that Lord Auchinleck ‘begs you will be so kind as to let him have some spawn of Perch’ (Corr. 7, p. 157).

from Crébillon’s Rhadamistus and Zenobia, and a passage, referred to on p. 95 (Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 71), contained in Letter 34 (Vol. 1, pp. 249–55, at p. 254) where d’Argens applies to the Genoese a French fable from La Fontaine, Fables, IV, iv (‘Le Jardinier et son Seigneur’). Theodore is referred to in Corsica on pp. 101–08 and 114–15; Boulton and McLoughlin, pp. 74–78, 81. 30. MS. ‘freind’ corrected to ‘friend’. 31. A reference to JB’s brother David (who later took the name ‘Thomas’ before David) (1748–1826). He had been an apprentice in the Edinburgh banking firm of John Coutts and Co. since 1763 (Corr. 1, p. 58 n. 6; Corr. 5, p. 15 n. 5). In Jan. 1768, he would move to Spain to become a merchant in Valencia (From Lord Marischal, 26 Jan. 1768, Corr. 7, pp. 12 and 13 n. 2), and would return to Scotland in 1780 (Journ. 28 May and 12 June 1780, Laird, pp. 217, 221), later making his home in London. JB’s earlier journals report recurrent anxieties about what he experienced as the problems of Scots ‘familiarity’, and his wishes to maintain a suitable dignity of personal distance, ‘for too much familiarity . . . is allways attended with dissagreable circumstances. I realy find this is what I am most apt to fall into; & as it often makes me look little & so gives me pain, I must guard against it’ (Journ. 9 July 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 266). 32. MS. ‘on’es’. 33. MS. ‘one’self’. 34. The words on this page of the notebook are written in pencil. 35. ‘Boyd’s Bible’ was an unofficial name for the versifications of Biblical episodes by Zachary (or Zacharie) Boyd (1585–1653), graduated M.A. University of St. Andrews 1607, appointed minister of the Barony Church in Glasgow 1623; Dean of Faculty, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Glasgow University (Oxford DNB; Fasti Scot. iii. 392). ‘Boyd’s published poetry appears in three separate collections: The Garden of Zion (1644), The Psalms of David

55

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 55

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 have been alteri.’ JB supported his wording with quotations from Plautus, Terence and even the Juris Civilis Fontes (Life ii. 23–24; Juris Civilis Fontes means sources of the civil law (i.e. Roman law)). SJ’s correction conformed to normal Latin grammar, but alterae, as used by JB, was an alternative form very occasionally found in classical Latin authors. A volume entitled Juris Civilis Fontes et Rivi, by Henricus Stephanus (Henri Estienne), was published in Paris in 1580, and a volume entitled Fontes Quatuor Juris Civilis in unum collecti, by Jacobus Gothofredus (Jacques Godefroy), was published in Geneva in 1653. The volume by Stephanus was the one JB consulted, as it was in the library of Auchinleck House (Boswell’s Books, #1197, p. 194). 41. A reference to lines by Hadrian (a.d. 76–138), Emperor of Rome (a.d. 117–138), said to have been composed shortly before he died. It must relate to something other than the Latin in the thesis Dedication. SJ makes no reference to Hadrian or his Latin or to this expression in his letter of 21 Aug., and JB did not use this expression in the Dedication. The lines are quoted in the Historia Augusta:

38. Possibly Annie Cuninghame (d. 1779 (Ominous Years, Chart VI, p. 379)), daughter of Capt. Alexander MontgomeryCuninghame and his wife, JB’s first cousin Elisabeth Montgomery-Cuninghame, and niece of JB’s future wife, Margaret Montgomerie (for all of whom, see pp. 82–83 n. 5). JB is presumably thinking of purchasing the marbles, as a gift for her, in Glasgow. 39. Not certainly identified. Possibly Allan McLauchlan, bookbinder, Dumfries, who from 1768 was a bookseller in Dumfries (EWPBH; see also Carnie, p. 108). Perhaps JB is reminding himself to acquire some books for McLauchlan in Glasgow; or maybe there were books at Auchinleck which needed repairing and JB is telling himself, on his return to Auchinleck, to send the books to McLauchlan for rebinding. 40. JB is here planning his response to a part of SJ’s criticism of his Latin in the Dedication to his printed thesis for admission to the Faculty of Advocates (for JB’s thesis, see Introduction, p. 3). A copy of the thesis, which is entitled Disputatio Juridica, Ad Tit. X. Lib. XXXIII. Pand. De Supellectile Legata, is held by the Advocates’ Library. In the Dedication to John Stuart, Viscount Mountstuart (for whom, see pp. 263–64 n. 2), JB wrote ‘Viro nobilissimo ornatissimo, JOANNI, vicecomiti Mountstuart, atavis edito regibus excelsæ familiæ de BUTE spei alteræ’ (‘A man most noble, most illustrious . . . , sprung from royal progenitors, second hope of the lofty Family of Bute’ (Earlier Years, p. 291 n. 1)). JB had sent SJ a copy, and on 21 Aug. 1766 SJ had written to JB saying: ‘your Latin wants correction. In the beginning, Spei alteræ, not to urge that it should be primæ [i.e. spei primae, meaning ‘first hope’], is not grammatical: alteræ should be alteri’ (Life ii. 20). In his letter dated 6 Nov. 1766, JB would reply: ‘You think I should have used spei primæ, instead of spei alteræ.’ After offering various quotations from Virgil in defence of his wording, JB remarked: ‘You think alteræ ungrammatical, and you tell me it should

Animula vagula blandula, hospes comesque corporis, quae nunc abibis in loca, pallidula, rigida, nudula, nec ut soles dabis iocos?

There have been many translations of these lines. Pope translated them in 1712 as follows: Ah Fleeting Spirit! wand’ring Fire, That long hast warm’d my tender Breast, Must thou no more this Frame inspire? No more a pleasing, chearful Guest? Whither, ah whither art thou flying! To what dark, undiscover’d Shore? Thou seem’st all trembling, shiv’ring, dying, And Wit and Humour are no more!

56

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 56

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 Muiravonside, a parish of south-east Stirlingshire. Reid was accused of being by ‘habit and repute’ a common thief and of having stolen 120 sheep from the farm of Craig Kingledoors in Peeblesshire. Theft of a flock of sheep was a capital offence (Alison’s Principles, pp. 309–10; LPJB 1, p. 32). It was alleged that the offence took place in the period Sept. to Nov. 1765 (Criminal Letters (NRS JC26/178; Yale MS. Lg 4:1)). Reid, who was due to be tried by the circuit court of the High Court of Justiciary at Glasgow on 13 Sept. 1766, maintained that he came into possession of the sheep when he left his house with a view to going to Hamilton to try to collect a debt. Near to Glasgow, Reid said, he came upon an old acquaintance, James Wilson, drover in Chapelhill, Annandale (JB’s Notes of his Plea for John Reid, page 6 (Yale MS. Lg 4:4; LPJB 1, p. 34)), who was driving a flock of sheep. According to the record of JB’s submissions at the court hearing, JB stated that Wilson asked Reid to take the sheep to Glasgow for him, as he had ‘Some Business Somewhere off the road’, and ‘Endeavour to dispose of them but not under five Guineas a Score’. JB went on to say that Reid, ‘Suspecting no Evill undertook this[,] drove the Sheep to [Camlachie (a village to the east of Glasgow)] and publickly brought out Butchers from Glasgow to whom he offered the Sheep at a high price and would not sell them for a Shilling a Score under the price fixed by the person who [Reid] believed to be the owner of them.’ JB further stated that Reid ‘Stayed that night at Glasgow and next morning going out again to the Sheep he mett his old acquaintance in the Gallowgate [an old thoroughfare in Glasgow leading ‘to the village of Camlachie, three miles to the east’ (Keay and Keay, p. 442)] who told him he had no more occasion for his Assistance and paid him Eighteen pence a day as had been agreed on’ (Circuit Court Minute Book (NRS JC13/15; LPJB 1, pp. 34–35)). In view of further representations made by JB at the hearing, the court postponed the trial. The judges were Lord

(from Adaptations of the Emperor Hadrian, published in Lewis’s Miscellany, 1730, reprinted in Butt, p. 116)

42. In a letter to WJT, JB, referring to a young woman in Berwick whom WJT had at one time resolved to marry, had written, ‘had you married her, what a pretty figure would you have made by this time!’ (To WJT, 17 May 1766, Corr. 6, p. 148). But JB’s meaning here is obscure. He perhaps means that an Italian, or somebody in Italy, had said that a married French lady would make ‘a pretty figure’. 43. Presumably a reference to the Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiæ by the German scholar Joannes Georgius Graevius (1632–1703), published 1704–25 in Leiden. This work was quoted by JB in Corsica, pp. 51 and 207 (Boulton and McLoughlin, pp. 48 and 126). The passages quoted were from a work by Hieronymus de Marinis set out in Graevius, Tome 1, Vol. 2, columns 1415–50. JB cites the passages quoted as being in Vol. 1, p. 1410, whereas they are in Tome 1, Vol. 2, columns 1421– 22. Tome 10, Vol. 15, at columns 28–42, contains a work by Philippe Cluverius, Sardinia et Corsica Antiquae, but JB did not refer to or quote from that work in Corsica. Although he quotes a passage from Cluverius on p. 17 (Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 31) and cites it as being from Corsica Antiquae, the passage was in fact from Cluverius, Introductionis in Universam Geographiam, tam Veterem quam Novam, Amsterdam, 1661, Book 3, Chapter XLIII. 44. The words on this page of the notebook from ‘John Main’ to ‘Carnwarth road’ are written sideways. 45. Auchingray: ‘an estate . . . in New Monkland parish, Lanarkshire, adjacent to Linlithgowshire’ (OGS, i. 84). 46. Carnwath: ‘a village and a parish of E[ast] Lanarkshire’ (OGS, i. 241). 47. John Main in Auchingray was presumably a potential witness for the defence in JB’s first criminal case, in which he acted for John Reid, a flesher (i.e. a butcher) in

57

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 57

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 for Scotland 1759, Lord Advocate 1760, Lord of Session (as Lord Barskimming) and Lord Justice-Clerk 14 June 1766, later Lord Glenlee (1780), Lord President of the Court of Session 15 Jan. 1788 (Fac. Adv., p. 150; College of Justice, pp. 530–31; LPJB 1, pp. 389–90)]), who each stated that the verdict was contrary to clear evidence’ (LPJB 1, pp. 40–41). JB would represent Reid again eight years later, in 1774, when Reid was once again charged with sheep-stealing and being by habit and repute a sheep-stealer. On this later occasion, however, JB’s efforts would prove unsuccessful and Reid would be hanged (Justiciary Court Minute Book (NRS JC7/38, pp. 353ff.); LPJB 1, p. 41 and n. 160, pp. 42–43). For detailed accounts of JB’s preparation for the trial (which took place on 1 Aug. 1774), the trial itself and the aftermath, see Defence, Heinemann pp. 247ff., McGraw-Hill pp. 236ff., BEJ, pp. 125ff., and Turnbull, ‘Boswell and Sympathy’. 48. ‘Have copy of letter of Barons to Pope by Keeper’ (Italian). (In modern Italian, this passage would be rendered as ‘Abbiate copia della lettera dei Baroni al Papa dal Padrone.’) It seems from this jotting (which is written in pencil, right-side up on the left-hand side of the page) that JB was reminding himself to obtain from the Register Office in Edinburgh (the head of which was the Lord Clerk Register, who was the official responsible for the custody of the national archives of Scotland and under whom there were a number of Deputes and two ‘Deputy Keepers of Records’) a copy of the famous Declaration of Arbroath of 1320, from which JB would quote on the title page of Corsica, as follows: ‘Non enim propter gloriam, divitias aut honores pugnamus, sed propter libertatem solummodo, quam nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita amittit.’ Robert Crawford describes these as ‘the most famous words from the then little regarded 1320 Scottish “Declaration of Independence”, the Declaration of Arbroath’. He offered the translation, ‘We fight not for the sake of glory,

Auchinleck and Lord Pitfour (for whom, see p. 213 n. 3). On 20 Nov. 1766, Reid’s solicitor, John Johnston (or Johnstoun), writer in Glasgow (admitted notary public 18 June 1760, admitted to Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow 30 Aug. 1764 (LPJB 2, p. 413; Finlay, i. 299 (no. 1587))), would write to JB stating that Reid had told him that ‘his wife and friends are in Diligence to find out the person he says Gave him the sheep’ (Corr. 5, p. 86). John Main in Auchingray may have been one of the friends in question. However, it seems that Wilson was never found. According to Reid’s later account (in The Last Speech, Confession, and Dying Words of John Reid, 1774 (Yale Lg 24:4; printed in Defence, Heinemann pp. 357ff., McGraw-Hill pp. 343ff.)), in which Reid claimed that Wilson had asked him to take the sheep to a place ‘near Glasgow’ and that Wilson had in fact failed to appear there contrary to his promise, Reid maintained: ‘[I] never saw my employer till about four years after my trial was over, in a public market. I was determined to seize him, but he prevented me by his sudden disappearance, so that I never saw him since.’ Reid’s trial came before the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh on 15 Dec. 1766, when he was represented by Andrew Crosbie (1736–85, admitted advocate 9 Aug. 1757, later Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Advocates 1784 (Fac. Adv., p. 46; see also BEJ, p. 562, and Ramsay, i. 449–59)), Bannatyne William Macleod (1744–1833, admitted advocate 22 Jan. 1765, later appointed sheriff-depute of Bute 1776, Lord of Session (as Lord Bannatyne) 16 May 1799, received knighthood as Sir William Macleod Bannatyne 1823 (Fac. Adv., p. 10; LPJB 1, p. 389)) and JB. The defence adduced no witnesses. However, the jury found the charges ‘not proven’ (LPJB 1, pp. 36–40). Reid was thus acquitted. ‘The result met with the severe disapproval of the judges (including the Lord Justice-Clerk, Thomas Miller of Barskimming [1717–89, admitted advocate 21 Feb. 1742, appointed sheriff-depute of Kirkcudbrightshire 1748, Solicitor-General

58

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 58

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 if an accused was convicted of theft and was also found to be by habit and repute a thief, this was regarded as an aggravated form of theft, thus ‘making it more difficult to persuade the King to grant a transportation pardon (that is, a commutation of the sentence to one of transportation to the plantations)’ (LPJB 1, p. 32). 50. John Macleod of Muiravonside (1688–1773), advocate (admitted 21 June 1710 (Fac. Adv., p. 140; LPJB 1, p. 389)). Macleod was the owner of the barony of Manuelfowlis (Petition of John Dick of Compston dated 14 Feb. 1767 (Signet Library 137:2), transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 11–17, at p. 12). 51. Another possible reading is ‘se’n’ (as in ‘se’night’). Or perhaps JB inadvertently wrote ‘thesese’, in which case the figure ‘7’ follows. 52. JB presumably intended to insert here the place or year of Reid’s birth. 53. Unidentified. 54. Another possible reading is ‘or 1 Nov.’. 55. Not certainly identified. Possibly George Pitcairn (d. 1791), merchant, admitted burgess and guild brother of Edinburgh 30 May 1750 (REBGB, 1701–1760, p. 161; Scots Mag., 1 Oct. 1791, liii. 517). He was appointed one of the Captains of the Edinburgh City Guard, but Kay states that, some time after being appointed, he was dismissed for engaging in ‘no very creditable speculation’ – namely, ‘importing bad half-pence from England’ – and that the city magistrates ‘took cognisance of the affair’ and on 29 Apr. 1767 ‘ordered the alarm to be sounded by tuck of drum’ (Kay, i. 41, and note). However, it would appear that he was not actually dismissed and that he retained his post until 1789, for his retirement was announced that year (Scots Mag., 1 May 1789, li. 260). He may well have held the position of Captain of the City Guard in 1766, but JB does not elsewhere record any mention of him. JB is known to have carried a pistol on at least one earlier occasion, for he reports that in

riches, or honours, but for the sake of liberty alone, which no good man relinquishes except with his life’ (Crawford, p. 379; see also Pittock, p. 49). Underneath the quotation appear the words ‘Lit. Comit. et Baron. Scotiæ ad Pap. A.D. 1320’ (i.e. Letter of the Earls and Barons of Scotland to the Pope). The Declaration, dated 3 Apr. 1320, was a letter addressed to Pope John XXII endeavouring to persuade him to support Scottish independence against the claims of Edward II of England. During his travels in Europe, JB styled himself ‘Baron’, the title by which he was presented to the Pope (Mem. 14 May 1765, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 86, McGraw-Hill p. 82). ‘While travelling in Germany, he had assumed the style of Baron as indicating his social status more justly in the Continental scale than the plain “Esquire” permitted him by British custom’ (Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 86 n. 5 (for ‘lairds’ read ‘lands’), McGraw-Hill p. 82 n. 6, where it is pointed out that the lands of Auchinleck, granted to JB’s ancestor Thomas Boswell (d. 1513) by James IV of Scotland, were indeed a barony). 49. In or about 1753, Reid had been charged with having stolen two cows. He was tried at the circuit court of the High Court of Justiciary at Glasgow in the autumn of that year. The jury unanimously found him not guilty. In his notes for Reid’s trial in Nov. 1766, JB would state that after the not guilty verdict in 1753 Reid ‘went home in full confidence that He would be considered as the same honest man He had ever appeared . . . But alas My Lords such is the weakness I will not say malevolence of human Nature that with very many his having been tried at Glasgow made him be looked upon as a Suspicious Person. And to this Tryal where your Lordships see he was honourably acquitted we must ascribe that habite and repute which is this day charged against him, & to this we must ascribe his misfortune in being again brought before this awfull Judicature’ (Yale MS. Lg 4:8; LPJB 1, pp. 38–39). Being by habit and repute a thief was not in itself a crime; but,

59

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 59

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 Experimental Philosophy at Glasgow University 1691, d. 1696), in his work Satan’s Invisible World discovered; or, a Choice Collection of Modern Relations . . . to which is added, that marvellous History of Major Weir and his sister, the Witches of Bargarran, Pittenweem and Calder, &c., Edinburgh, 1769, states in Relation XLII (Concerning the witches of Calder), at p. 203, that one of the witches had a child ‘which she gave to the devil, not only the soul, but the corps without burying’. It was said she put a spell on Lord Torphichen’s son whereby the boy was several times spirited away and sometimes ‘appeared to be lifted up in the air’ (ibid., p. 204). It was further said that this alleged witch was taken into custody and revealed the identity of other alleged witches. ‘She was examined by the minister of the parish, and several others, but was brutishly ignorant, and scarce knew any thing but her witchcraft . . . [A]t length she confessed that she gave the corps [of her child] as well as the soul to the devil, which he said he was to make a roast of. She with all her hellish accomplices died in custody, after they had confessed many amazing incantations, and horrible unheard of witchcrafts’ (ibid., p. 204). It is not known whether, in the event, JB did consult Logan about the Precognition, or why he wanted it. 59. Dicite Veneficae: ‘Tell, ye Witches’. 60. JB was due to go to Ayr to attend the Southern Circuit of the High Court of Justiciary appointed to sit at Ayr from 10 Oct. (Scots Mag., 1 Sept. 1766, xxviii. 500). At Ayr, he represented a James Haddow at his trial on 11 Oct., on two charges of housebreaking. Although found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, it is believed that his sentence was subsequently commuted to transportation (Earlier Years, pp. 299–300, 532; South Circuit Minute Book 24/9/1766–18/5/1770 (NRS JC12/12)). 61. William McQuhae (1737–1823), who had been a favourite pupil of Adam Smith at Glasgow University, had been tutor to JB’s younger brothers and a fast

Nov. 1762, being fearful of highway robbers, he and his fellow passenger each held ‘a loaded Pistol’ in his hand as they travelled in a coach in the dark of night towards Biggleswade on their journey from Edinburgh to London (Journ. 18 Nov. 1762, LJ 1762–63, pp. 6–7). 56. Probably William Logan of Castlemains. JB has perhaps now returned to Auchinleck. 57. The word ‘precognition’ is used here in the sense of ‘an examination by the judge ordinary or justices of peace, where any crime has been committed; that the fact may be ascertained, and full and perfect knowledge given to the public prosecutor, in preparing the libel and carrying on the prosecution’ (Bell, 1st ed., ii. 616). 58. There are various accounts of the witches of Calder (‘a large district in the extreme W[est] of Edinburghshire’ (OGS, i. 216)). One version of the tradition has it that, on the height known as ‘Tamethemoon’, the witches ‘ascended to the moon, flying on broomsticks. Up they went to tame or turn the moon each eight and twenty days, fearing that under the influence of the new callendar of 1582 the moon would go wrong and forget to re-appear in the heavens for ever, to the sad loss and woe of mankind; some of those witches were caught, tried, condemned, and burned on the Cunnigar or witches knowe of Mid Calder, that still lies between the Almond and the village’ (West Calder, pp. x–xi). A further account states: ‘In 1720, an unlucky boy, the third son of James [Sandilands], Lord Torphichen [the 7th Lord (d. 1753)], took it into his head . . . to play the possessed and bewitched person, laying the cause of his distress on certain old witches in Calder [that is, the village now known as Mid Calder], near to which village his father had his mansion [Calder House]. The women were imprisoned, and one or two of them died; but the Crown counsel would not proceed to trial’ (Letters on Demonology, p. 271). George Sinclair (appointed Professor of Mathematics and

60

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 60

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 skeechs’ (Journ. 22 May 1767) and consulting and breakfasting at ‘Auchinskeith’s’ (Journ. 28 and 29 Apr. 1769 respectively). In this jotting ‘Achenskichs’ is written in pencil. 67. Diodorus Siculus (fl. 1st century b.c.) was a Greek historian and author of the Bibliothēkēs Historikēs, which had been rendered in Latin as Bibliothecae Historicae (‘The Library of History’). JB referred to or quoted from this work in Corsica at pp. 19, 26–27, 49, 201–03 and 220–21; Boulton and McLoughlin, pp. 32, 36, 47, 123–24 and 133. A copy of this work was in the library of Auchinleck House (Boswell’s Books, #1046, p. 181). 68. James Templeton was a constable in the Excise Office in Edinburgh (Edin. Alm. 1767, p. 81). 69. That is, ‘What seed today’. Another possible reading is ‘What’s to day’. 70. A reference (written in pencil) to the case of William Johnston v. John Paxton, in which JB’s instructing solicitor would be Alexander Orr of Waterside (1725–74), W.S. (admitted 3 Feb. 1755 (W.S. Register, p. 246)). JB acted for John Paxton, merchant in Ecclefechan (‘a village in Hoddam parish, Annandale, Dumfriesshire’ (OGS, ii. 462)). Paxton was the defender in proceedings brought in the sheriff court at Dumfries by William Johnston of Scrogs (or Scroggs), a farmhouse in Tundergarth parish, Dumfriesshire (RCAHMS, site number NY18SE 12). The sheriff granted decree in favour of Paxton, and Johnston then applied to the Court of Session for suspension of the sheriff’s decree. In such cases, the Court of Session proceedings were sometimes stated as being at the instance of the party who had obtained decree (LPJB 2, p. 399 n. 49), and it is no doubt for this reason that JB on this occasion gave the name of the case as Paxton v. Johnston (rather than Johnston v. Paxton). The action concerned a boundary dispute between neighbouring proprietors over an area of ground in Dumfriesshire which had formerly been part of a commonty but had

friend of JB’s for a time. JB found him ‘a Man of good parts, great & accurate knowledge, easiness of manners & goodness of heart’ (Journ. 11 Dec. 1762, LJ 1762–63, p. 38). JB’s ‘Journal of my jaunt, harvest 1762’ was written for McQuhae and JJ (Harvest Jaunt, p. 43). McQuhae had been presented to St. Quivox parish in Aug. 1763 and ordained on 1 Mar. 1764. JB calls him ‘Doctor [Mcquhae]’ either for his erudition or as a courtesy title for an assistant schoolmaster. He became a D.D. of St. Andrews University in 1794 (Fasti Scot. iii. 66; Corr. 8, p. 2 n. 11; Corr. 1, pp. 13–14 n. 7; Oxford DNB, s.v. William M’Quhae). 62. In Corsica JB quotes from the Odyssey books 2, 9 and 13, but not from book 17. 63. ὦ φίλ’: ‘O my friend,’ (Homer, Odyssey 17.593 (Eumaios the swineherd to the disguised Odysseus)). 64. τὸν δ` ἆυτε προσέειπε: (Penelope) ‘then addressed him’ (Homer, Odyssey 17.585). 65. Boswell’s Books, #1653, p. 229, indicates that the library at Auchinleck House contained a copy of a volume entitled Homeri Odyssea Graece (published in 1740), the languages of which are ancient Greek and Latin. JB perhaps intended taking that volume with him to Ayr with a view to consulting someone sufficiently skilled in Greek. McQuhae may have acquired a good knowledge of Greek during his studies at Glasgow University. 66. That is, the property of William Cuninghame (admitted burgess of the burgh of Prestwick 24 May 1740 (Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 646; Timperley, p. 64; RBP, p. 93)) of Auchenskeith (or Auchinskeith), an estate in Riccarton parish in the Kyle district of Ayrshire, about 6 miles northwest of Auchinleck House (Ayrshire, p. 272; Armstrongs’ Map of Ayrshire, on which the estate is shown as ‘Auchenskeigh’). In 1741, he had married Margaret, daughter of William Fairlie of Fairlie, Ayrshire. He would succeed as Bt. on 3 Aug. 1778 and died in 1781. His widow died in 1811 (Comp. Bar. ii. 385–86). JB mentions supping at ‘Achin-

61

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 61

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 but then it is of the inoffensive Kind. –– On the contrary, you have endeavoured to mount yourself on his poor Ruins; you have carefully diminished him, and ostentatiously magnified yourself; tho’ a Man of your Reflection must know that the greatest Merit vanishes before Self-praise, like Chaff before the Wind’ – from Francis Gentleman’s A trip to the Moon: Containing an account of the island of Noibla. Its inhabitants, religious and political customs, &c. By Sir Humphrey Lunatic, Bart., York, 1764, Vol. 1, p. 184. Vol. 2 was printed in London in 1765. Gentleman had offered to dedicate Vol. 2 to JB, but JB ‘politely refused his offer’ (Journ. 19 Sept. 1764, Journ. 1, p. 114). ‘In his answer, urging Gentleman to find a more celebrated dedicatee, JB pointed out that he has been honoured already in the dedication of Gentleman’s Oroonoko’ (Journ. 1, p. 114 n. 3; see also p. 51 n. 20 above). 72. This quotation, which JB would later adopt as a motto for one of his essays for the Lond. Mag. as The Hypochondriack, ‘On Parents & Children & Education’ (No. XLVI, July 1781, Bailey, ii. 96–101), and which he would translate as ‘The more numerous our relations and connections, the more comfortable is old age’, is an extract from the following passage from Tacitus: ‘Heredes tamen successoresque sui cuique liberi: et nullum testamentum. Si liberi non sunt, proximus gradus in possessione, fratres, patrui, avunculi. Quanto plus propinquorum, quo major affinium numerus, tanto gratiosior senectus, nec ulla orbitatis pretia’ (‘However, each one’s own children are his heirs and successors; there are no wills. If there are no children, the next in line to succeed to any property are brothers; then uncles, paternal and then maternal. The more blood relatives one has and the more numerous one’s in-laws, the more agreeable is one’s old age; and there are no material advantages to being childless’ (Tacitus, De Situ, Moribus, et Populis Germaniae Libellus (A Discourse of the Situation, Customs, and People of Germany), ch. 20)). Bailey, ii. 96, gives the motto as

been divided among the owners in terms of a decision of arbiters in 1736. The arbiters appointed various roads to run through the shares allotted to the different proprietors, one being a lane which was declared to be the boundary on the east of the share of the commonty acquired by Paxton. This lane was for the convenience of Johnston so that there could be access for his lands of Mosshead (in Tundergarth parish) to the great drove road to the south. This case is first mentioned in JB’s Consultation Book on 12 Dec. 1766 (LPJB 1, p. 372), when he would receive instructions to attend a hearing before his father, Lord Auchinleck, on 16 Dec. 1766. After much procedure (for which, see LPJB 1, p. 62), Lord Auchinleck would pronounce an interlocutor on 2 Aug. 1768, finding that there was sufficient evidence that the arbiters intended Paxton to have the whole ground to the boundary of Johnston’s property of Mosshead and that Paxton had right to continue in possession of that ground (NRS CS237/IJ/I/73). Johnston would appeal against that interlocutor by way of reclaiming petition to the Inner House of the Court of Session and JB would be instructed to draft Answers to the reclaiming petition. JB’s Answers, dated 21 Dec. 1768 and extending to nineteen pages in the handwriting of an unidentified clerk (NRS CS237/IJ/I/73), are transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 63–69. On page 4 of the Answers (LPJB 1, p. 64), JB would refer to the proceedings as ‘the very tedious Litigation now before your Lordships’, and on page 19 (ibid., p. 69) to ‘this tedious and expensive process’. It would seem that Johnston proceeded no further with his reclaiming petition, for the relevant Court of Session Minute Book (Pott’s Office, NRS CS 74/18) contains no reference to any further interlocutors in the case after Lord Auchinleck’s interlocutor of 2 Aug. 1768 (incorrectly stated in the Minute Book as being dated 3 Aug. 1768). 71. ‘Your Accuser sets forth his own Character justly, without throwing any Sarcasms upon yours; he betrayed Pride,

62

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 62

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 regularly between 1676 and 1679, but ceased to attend in January 1680’ (Oxford DNB). The source of the story about the ‘graceless neighbour’ to which JB refers has not been located and JB is not known to have made use of this story in his later writings. 76. Andrew Gray (d. bef. 19 Mar. 1670), M.A. King’s College, Aberdeen (1617), appointed Church of Scotland minister of Coull (‘a parish of S[outh] Aberdeenshire’ (OGS, ii. 289)) before 15 July 1624 (Fasti Scot. vi. 89). That JB retained an (apparently unrealized) intention to make some sort of use of this poem is suggested by the fact that he made a copy of it (Yale MS. M 344) some years later, on paper scavenged from a wrapper involving one of his law cases from Feb. 1771. (The poem is written on the blank side of a discarded wrapper addressed ‘To Mr. James Boswell, Advocate, Caningate’ and is endorsed by JB’s clerk, John Lawrie, with these words: ‘Cesar Parr covering state of his Case, with several Letters. Rec’d 18 febry. 1771’. For Caesar Parr, see Journ. 3 Apr. 1767 and n. 1.) ‘The twenty-four lines about [Gray] copied by JB apparently represent a fuller and more unflattering version of the Elegy from which Andrew Jervise, Epitaphs and Inscriptions, 1875–79, ii. 415, quotes twelve lines “said to have been written by the Earl of Aboyne”’ (Catalogue, i. 131). The poem, which was published in James Maidment, A Book of Scotish Pasquils, Edinburgh, 1827, Vol. 2 (A Second Book of Scotish Pasquils), pp. 21–23, and A Book of Scotish Pasquils. 1568–1715, Edinburgh, 1868, pp. 229–31, is as follows:

‘Quanto plus propinquorum, quo major assinium [error for ‘affinium’] numerus, tanto gratiosior senectus.’ 73. ‘Potui humor ex ordeo aut frumento, in quandam similitudinem vini corruptus’ (‘The liquor they drink is made from barley or corn, and is fermented into something resembling wine’ (Tacitus, De Situ, Moribus, et Populis Germaniae Libellus, ch. 23)). 74. ‘It is respectable for women to bewail the dead, and for men to remember them’ (Tacitus, De Situ, Moribus, et Populis Germaniae Libellus, ch. 27). JB seems here to have been contemplating an essay on the topic of ‘grief’, but he would make use of this quotation well before starting ‘The Hypochondriack’ series. He had it in mind when he composed his ‘Verses in the Character of a Corsican’, which, having begun earlier, he completed while at David Garrick’s Shakespeare Jubilee at Stratford in Sept. 1769. He had it printed there as a broadside, then published it soon after in the Lond. Mag., where the lines ‘In man’s firm breast conceal’d the grief should lye / Which melts with grace in woman’s gentle eye’ are marked with an asterisk, keyed to a footnote: ‘Feminis lugere bonestum [error for ‘honestum’] est. Viris meminisse. TACITUS’ (Lond. Mag. Sept. 1769, xxxviii. 455; Journ. 7 Sept. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 300, McGraw-Hill pp. 282–83; Earlier Years, p. 426; Facts and Inventions, pp. 31–33). 75. Charles Gordon (d. 1681), 1st Earl of Aboyne, fourth son of George Gordon (c. 1590–1649), 2nd Marquis of Huntly, and Lady Anne Campbell (1594–1638). Huntly, who as a staunch royalist loyally supported Charles I, had his estates forfeited in 1645 and was executed in 1649. The family estates were restored to Aboyne when he was created Earl in 1660 upon the restoration of Charles II. He thus became ‘head of a significant interest in north-east Scotland’, but his Catholicism ‘inhibited his participation in public life’. However, in 1676 he was appointed to the Scottish Privy Council and ‘attended the council fairly

On the Tymelie Death of little Mr Andrew Gray, late Minister of Coul, 1678. This narrow hous, and room of clay Holds little Mr Andrew Gray; Who from this world disappears, Though voyd of witt, yet full of yeires. To point him forth requyres some skill, He knew so little good or ill. Yet, that his memory may live,

63

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 63

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 had recorded an admiring boyhood memory of her (Journ. 14 Dec. 1762, LJ 1762–63, pp. 45–46). 80. John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair (c. 1673–1747), Col. of the Scots Greys 1706, elected one of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland 1707, promoted Maj.-Gen. 1709, Lt.-Gen. 1710, appointed a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to King George I 1714, Privy Councillor 1714, Col. of the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons 1715, Field-Marshall of all the Forces 1742, commanded the Forces at the Battle of Dettingen 27 June 1743, appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Great Britain 1744 (Scots Peer. viii. 151–55). 81. Unidentified. The list of names here generally indicates that JB has been recording an anecdote in relation to a funeral attended by eminent men of the generation of his paternal grandfather, James Boswell. 82. Charles Blount (1654–93), of Blount’s Hall, Staffordshire, English author and freethinker (Oxford DNB). 83. ‘Just before his death Blount published The Oracles of Reason (1693), a collection of miscellaneous tracts and letters written by himself . . . and other freethinkers from 1678–1693’ (Oxford DNB). 84. ‘Blount’s wife . . . died in 1689, and he and his deceased wife’s sister fell in love, but both knew that a marriage between persons so connected was illegal. [Blount] petitioned the archbishop of Canterbury, but to no avail. Having long laboured in vain to convince her that she might marry him anyway, at last, whether in a deliberate attempt to kill himself or in the hope of touching her heart, Blount attempted suicide. After languishing for about a month he finally died’ (ibid.). JB would recount a version of this story in another of his essays for the Lond. Mag. as The Hypochondriack, ‘On Marriage’ (No. XLI, Feb. 1781, Bailey, ii. 54–61), stating that he had the anecdote ‘from grave authority’ (which he does not specify): ‘Mr. Blount . . . having lost his wife, fell in love with her sister, a very beautiful woman, and having composed with a

Some small accompt I mean to give. He had a church without a roof, A conscience that was cannon proof; He was Prelatick first, and then Became a Presbyterian. For he with Menzies, Row, and Cant, Roar’d fiercelie for the Covenant. Episcopall once more he turn’d, And yet for neither would be burn’d. A Rechhabite he did decline, For still he loved a cup of wyne. No Papist — for he had no merit — No Quaker — for he wanted spirit — No infidel — for he believed — That ministers by stipends lived. No Jew he was — for he did eat Excessivlie, all kynds of meat. Although in pulpit still he had Some smattering of the preaching trade, Yet, at each country feast and tryst, Rav’d nonsense like an Antichrist. And lest ye think I do him wrong, He being short, to be too long, No more the matter to obtrude, I with this Epitaph conclude. Here lyes Mr Andrew Gray, Of whom I have no more to say; But fiftie years he preach’d and lyed, Therefore God d****d him when he dyed.

77. Hon. George Dalrymple of Dalmahoy (c. 1680–1745), admitted advocate 13 Jan. 1704, member of the Parliament of Scotland as commissioner for Stranraer 1703–07, appointed Assistant Solicitor of the Customs and Excise 27 Sept. 1707, appointed Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland 25 May 1709 (Fac. Adv., pp. 49–50; Scots Peer. viii. 150; Parliaments of Scotland, i. 173). Brother of Lord Stair (mentioned below, n. 80). 78. John Wightman of Mauldslie, Lord Provost of Edinburgh 1721–23 (LPE, p. 63). 79. Elizabeth Dalrymple (1721–1816), daughter of George Dalrymple and Euphame Myreton (d. 1761), who in 1755 married Lt.-Gen. Humphrey Bland (?1686– 1763), then Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Scotland (Scots Peer. viii. 151). JB

64

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 64

27/02/23 6:13 PM

autumn 1766 Marion Dalrymple, was the eldest daughter of Hugh Dalrymple (1690–1755) of Drummore, Lord Drummore, and his wife Anne Horn (d. 1731), whose father, John Horn (d. 1743) of Horn and Westerhall, had also been an Edinburgh advocate (Fac. Adv., p. 50, p. 105; Anderson, pp. 274–75). Lord Auchinleck had succeeded Drummore as a Lord Commissioner of Justiciary on his death in 1755. 86. Anna Hamilton (d. 1711) married David Boswell (1640–1713), from 1661 Auchinleck’s 6th Laird (JB’s paternal great-grandfather), in 1666 (as JB says, ‘one hundred years ago’). In the Auch. Fam. Memoirs, Lord Auchinleck described her as ‘a Lady of eminent Piety’, with whom David Boswell ‘lived happily’; they were ‘both extreamly frugal & diligent manadgers & strove hard to save the Family from ruin’. She was the elder daughter of James Hamilton (d. 1668), 1st of Dalziel, and the second of his three wives, Jean Henderson (d. 1653), daughter of Sir John Henderson (d. 1618), 4th Bt. of Fordell, and his second wife, Anna Halkat. Her father, originally styled ‘of Boiges (or Boggs)’, was granted in 1647 the (territorial) Barony of Dalzell, resigned by the Earl and Countess of Carnwath. He ‘prospered by trade; in particular army contracts during Cromwellian wars’, was admitted burgess of Glasgow in 1632, and was Commissioner of Supply for Lanarkshire in 1655 (Burke’s Peerage, 107th ed., ii. 1749 and 1865; see also Douglas’s Baronage, p. 459; Ayr and Wigton, I. i. 194; Anderson, p. 274). 87. Translation taken from Earlier Years, p. 301. ‘The syntax is incoherent (even more so than appears in the translation) and the tenses are not quite certain’ (ibid.).

great deal of ingenuity a treatise to prove that it was lawful for him to marry her, he sent it to the Bishop of London, and afterwards waited upon his lordship to ask his opinion. The bishop did not wish to entangle himself in disputation; so he calmly said, “Your arguments, Mr. Blount, may be very good, but I’ll tell you, if you marry the lady you will be hanged.”’ Blount’s paper on the appropriateness of marrying the sister of a deceased wife (a letter dated 8 Mar. 1693) was printed in his Oracles of Reason (Bailey, ii. 56 n. 3). The letter was titled ‘To his Friend, Torismond, to Iustifie the Marrying of two Sisters, the one after the other’. JB, writing some fifteen years after first recording the anecdote, seems to be working from memory, as the Archbishop of Canterbury has become the Bishop of London in this telling. 85. Dalzell (or Dalziel) House, near Motherwell, Lanarkshire, a fifteenthcentury tower house with a seventeenthcentury wing. In 1766, the owner of the house was Archibald Hamilton of Rosehall (1694–1774), advocate (admitted 30 July 1717) (Fac. Adv., p. 94; ‘Dalzell House’: Historic Environment Scotland, ). Hamilton was also 4th of Dalzell and 9th of Orbieston. His mother, Margaret Hamilton (d. 1704), was the eldest daughter of Sir Archibald Hamilton of Rosehall, and he succeeded to Rosehall in 1757 as heir of entail of his grandfather.   JB and his father may have visited Dalzell on their way back to Edinburgh from Auchinleck for the start of the Court of Session’s winter session on 12 Nov. The family here, as well as being distantly related to the Boswells, had many Edinburgh legal connections. Hamilton’s wife,

65

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 65

27/02/23 6:13 PM

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 66

27/02/23 6:13 PM

1767

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 67

27/02/23 6:13 PM

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 68

27/02/23 6:13 PM

10 january 1767 [JB started to keep a journal again on 1 January 1767.1 The first extant entry (of which the initial part is missing) is in respect of 10 January, at which point JB is spending some time as a guest of Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session,2 at Dundas’s country residence at Arniston, near Temple, Midlothian.3]

Saturday 10 January [. . .] Then in Library4 — found some curious remarks on Corsica in Graevius.5 President took them up at once — before you — amazing quickness6 — Hearty all afternoon. Quite at home — Dams7 with Miss Dundas.8

judicial appointment, that the recommendations of his own father, Robert Dundas of Arniston (1685–1753), Lord President of the Court of Session (Fac. Adv., p. 62), had had such weight with the Lord Chancellor (Philip Yorke (1690–1764), 1st Earl of Hardwicke (Oxford DNB)) and the Duke of Newcastle (Thomas Pelham-Holles (1693– 1768), Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne and 1st Duke of Newcastle under Lyme, Prime Minister (as First Lord of the Treasury) 1754–56 and 1757–62 (Oxford DNB)) that he had been their ‘first thought’ for the position (?9 July 1755, Yale MS. C 1154.8). JB had great respect for Dundas as a judge, and would continue to admire his administration of the court and the enlivening energy he brought to its proceedings. As he would write some seven years later: ‘The President was in the chair. His animal spirits made the court seem more alive. It was like ringing the glasses at a drinking bout, or striking a shuttlecock with a sounding battledore’ (Journ. 28 June 1774, Defence, Heinemann p. 228, McGraw-Hill p. 218). In late Mar., JB would offer to reciprocate Dundas’s hospitality at Arniston by inviting him and his family to visit Auchinleck (for which he and his father would set out from Edinburgh on 19 Mar.), and felt sufficiently comfortable with Dundas to confess to him that he was suffering from a bout of gonorrhoea (for which see below, pp. 131 and n. 3, Journ. 17 Mar. and n. 15, and Journ. 28 Mar. and n. 1). Dundas, in reply, referring

1. This condensed journal, designated ‘J 12’ in the Yale editors’ cataloguing system, occupies ‘61 quarto pages and an unpaged title-leaf (i.e. 32 leaves), originally numbered 1–73, but pp. 1–2, 7–12, 25–28 (6 leaves in all) are missing, loose’ (Catalogue, i. 8). The title leaf reads ‘Journal, 1767, From January 1 to June 3’. The first leaf of the journal, containing the entries from 1 Jan., is missing. The second leaf starts with the concluding part of the entry for 10 Jan. 2. Robert Dundas of Arniston (1713–87) was admitted advocate on 28 Feb. 1738, appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland in 1742, elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates in 1746, elected M.P. for Edinburghshire (Midlothian) in 1754, appointed Lord Advocate in 1754 and appointed Lord President of the Court of Session on 14 June 1760. He was ‘renowned for his quick apprehension and efficient dispatch of business’ (LPJB 1, p. 386; see also BEJ, p. 554; Ramsay, i. 327–42; Omond, ii. 58–67; Fry, pp. 10ff.; College of Justice, pp. 523–25; Scots Mag. May 1790, lii. 239–47; and Oxford DNB). At this period, personal relations between him and JB were affectionate and cordial, although JB had reported of a previous visit to Arniston in 1762: ‘We were but dull . . . There was a large company there and things went on stiffly’ (Journ. 28 Oct. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 97). In July 1755, Dundas, as Lord Advocate, had written to JB’s father, on his

69

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 69

27/02/23 6:13 PM

10 january 1767 visit, ‘prayed to God to bless a reconciliation this day with an old friend of our family’. In the event, Dundas ‘took me by the hand and asked me how all was at home, and the awkwardness was nothing like what I apprehended’. A lively dinner followed: ‘There was much merriment, and everybody seemed pleased’ (Journ. 24 Apr. 1780, Laird, pp. 203–06). JB noted at a later point that he did not like Dundas’s ‘uncultivated manners’ (Journ. 8 Dec. 1780, Laird, p. 274), but in 1776, when Lord Auchinleck was unwell, JB had written: ‘The fellow, from his strong animal spirits, can at times do almost anything. He, with all the familiarity imaginable, accosted me, though I looked another way, “How’s your father the day, Jamie?” I was struck with his assurance. I own I somehow admired it. I thought him a clever fellow . . . I confess I felt a kind of warm regret that I had no social communication with the President, who had, through the general rotten rock of his character, veins of good metals: hospitality—quickness of apprehension—glowing keenness’ (Journ. 21 Nov. 1776, Extremes, p. 57). For his part, Dundas would on several occasions praise JB’s work as an advocate (Journ. 23 Feb. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 70; Journ. 22 Jan. 1782, Laird, p. 420; Journ. 19 Jan. 1786, Experiment, p. 29). 3. The house at Arniston had been built in 1726 for Dundas’s father to designs by William Adam (1689–1748), and part of the house was added in 1753 to designs by Adam’s eldest son, John Adam (1721– 92), who also worked on the interiors in 1755 (McWilliam, pp. 79–80). Arniston ‘approximates more closely to Palladian concepts than any other country-house of its period in Scotland’ (Macaulay, p. 70). 4. In Dundas’s day, the library – containing ‘beautiful plaster-work’ (Arniston Memoirs, p. 76) – was on the second floor. ‘From the Ionic pilasters supporting an elaborate pulvinated frieze over the bookshelves [sprang] groined plaster vaults with diverse lacy reliefs; spaces for busts between them. Recessed grey marble chimneypiece

to ‘these Misfortunes’ that ‘are sometimes Incident to young men and Laywers’, urged JB to be careful of his health (10 Apr., Corr. 5, pp. 143–44). JB in turn, continuing the pose of penitent son, thanked him for ‘the indulgence you have shewn me as a Father Confessor’ and renewed the invitation to Auchlineck (which, in the event, Dundas was unable to accept), noting that ‘You have allways been very carefull of my Father in matters of consequence’ (18 Apr., Corr. 5, p. 148). But JB would fall out with him over Dundas’s involvement in Ayrshire politics during the general election of 1774. JB supported the alliance of the Earls of Cassillis (Sir Thomas Kennedy of Culzean (d. 1775), Bt., 9th Earl), Eglinton (Archibald Montgomerie (1726–96), 11th Earl) and Loudoun (John Campbell (1705– 82), 4th Earl), who sought the re-election of the Earl of Cassillis’s brother, David Kennedy (admitted advocate 25 Feb. 1752, M.P. Ayrshire 1768–74, later 10th Earl of Cassillis 1775, d. 1792). Dundas supported Kennedy’s opponent, Sir Adam Fergusson (1733–1813) of Kilkerran (in Dailly parish, Ayrshire), Bt. (admitted advocate 23 Dec. 1755, later M.P. Ayrshire 1774–84 and 1790–96, Edinburgh 1784–90, Lord of Trade 1781–82 (Fac. Adv., p. 70; Comp. Bar. iv. 418; Namier and Brooke, ii. 419)), who had been put forward by an alliance formed of a group of landed gentry in the county and the Earls of Glencairn (William Cunningham (d. 1775), 12th Earl) and Dumfries (Patrick MacDowall-Crichton (1726–1803), 6th Earl). Moreover, Dundas persuaded Lord Auchinleck to give his support to Fergusson and even to create ‘nominal and fictitious’ votes in favour of Fergusson by splitting the superiorities of the Auchinleck estate, something JB considered ‘most ungentlemanly conduct’ and ‘rascally’ (Journ. 18 Nov. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 184). He therefore refused to see Dundas until there was finally a reconciliation in Apr. 1780, when Dundas invited JB to Arniston, where he had not been for seven years. JB, apprehensive about the

70

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 70

27/02/23 6:13 PM

11 january 1767 had married on 17 Oct. 1741 (Namier and Brooke, ii. 361). At the time of this journal entry, the eldest unmarried daughter was Dundas’s second daughter, Henrietta (1749–1832) (Douglas’s Baronage, p. 181), who in 1777 would marry Adam Duncan (1731–1804), a Capt. in the Royal Navy, later Admiral, and elevated to the peerage as Viscount Duncan of Camperdown (Comp. Peer. ii. 517). His third daughter, Margaret (d. 1795) (Douglas’s Baronage, p. 181), would marry, as his second wife, Gen. John Scott of Balcomie (1725–75) in June 1773 (Namier and Brooke, iii. 413), and his fourth daughter, Anne, would marry George Buchan (d. 1813) of Kelloe, Berwickshire, in Apr. 1773 (Arniston Memoirs, pp. 187–88 and 252 n.; Eur. Mag. July 1813, lxiv. 79).

crowned with two eagles’ (McWilliam, p. 81). A picture of the library appears in Arniston Memoirs, facing p. 220. 5. For Graevius and JB’s interest in his work Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiæ, see p. 57 n. 43. 6. An obituary of Dundas would note that, after his school and college education, he ‘was never known to read through a book, except, perhaps (and that but seldom), to look at parts out of curiosity, if he happened to know the author’ (Scots Mag. Dec. 1787, xlix. 574). 7. Dams: the game of draughts (Scots). 8. ‘Miss Dundas’ and her sister, referred to in the entry for 12 Jan., were two of the four daughters of Dundas and his first wife, Henrietta Baillie (d. 1755), whom he

Sunday 11 January Laird of Dundas1 & all went.2 You alone here — Library all forenoon.3 President shewed you Pliny’s Epistles4 with letter from Father5 & bid you point it out to his son6 — Told you method of recording Decisions — every Lord’s vote — notebooks &c7 — Open to you James8 — Hearty at dinner [ — ] Bottle of claret each. Second one. I grumbled — shall leave the half till night — 9 talk’d of this. He I coud10 not speak in my own house & I was affraid to speak before the President.11 Good strong conversation against infidelity &c12 — Evening with Ladies — read alternately[,] all of you[,] Rambler13 & Bible. ish and Temple parish (OGS), and Robert Dundas of Arniston being sole patron of Borthwick parish and joint patron of Temple parish (Stat. Acct. Scot. ii. 73, 434–35), it is likely that the church they went to was the parish church in one of those parishes. Borthwick parish church, which would be destroyed in a fire in 1775, was the ‘ancient Romanesque church of St Mungo, with tiny apsidal chancel’ (OGS). Temple parish acquired its name because the church – about 3 miles south-west of Arniston – was originally a chapel forming ‘part of a preceptory of the Knights Templars, which, founded by David I, . . . was the chief seat of the order in Scotland’ (OGS). The church would be described in 1791 as ‘an

1. James Dundas (1721–80), 24th Laird of Dundas (an estate with an ancient mansion, Dundas Castle, in Dalmeny parish, Linlithgowshire), Capt. in Scots Brigade in Holland 1745, Capt. in 25th Regt. of Foot 1747–48, M.P. Linlithgowshire 1770–74, burgess of Edinburgh 1770. In 1779, when a Franco-Spanish invasion was feared, Dundas would raise the 94th Regt. of Foot, of which he was Col. When the regiment was ordered to sail to the West Indies in 1780 he (along with many others) contracted fever on ship and died during the voyage (Namier and Brooke, ii. 357). 2. That is, the Laird of Dundas and all the company went to church. The estate of Arniston lying in both Borthwick par-

71

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 71

27/02/23 6:13 PM

11 january 1767 14 July 1717, appointed Lord Advocate 29 May 1720, elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates 9 Dec. 1721, M.P. Edinburghshire 1722–37, appointed Lord of Session (as Lord Arniston) 10 June 1737, and appointed Lord President of the Court of Session 10 Sept. 1748 (Fac. Adv., p. 62). 6. JB possibly means that Dundas showed JB a letter from Dundas’s father referring to a passage in Pliny’s Epistles and asked JB to point out to him where the passage could be found. Alternatively, it is possible that a letter from Lord Auchinleck is being referred to (the fact that ‘Father’ is spelt with a capital ‘F’ could perhaps be said to lend support to that idea). But, if so, the word ‘son’ in the words ‘bid you point it out to his son’ must be a reference to Dundas’s son, Robert (1758–1819), who was eight at the time (he was born on 6 June 1758) and would be an advocate (admitted 6 July 1779), M.P. Edinburghshire 1790–1801, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates 1796– 1801, and Chief Baron of Exchequer in Scotland 1801 (Fac. Adv., p. 63). 7. That is, Dundas explained that, when the judges in the Inner House of the Court of Session made decisions, a record was kept in notebooks of how each Lord voted (i.e. how each judge considered the Court’s interlocutor setting out the decision should be expressed). No official record was kept of each Lord’s detailed opinion (Stewart, ‘Session Papers in the Advocates Library’, p. 200). Lord Hailes (Sir David Dalrymple, Bt., for whom see pp. 90–92 n. 4) preserved detailed notes of the opinions delivered by the judges in cases in which he sat, but these were published posthumously in 1826 (in two volumes entitled Decisions of the Lords of Council and Session from 1766 to 1791). 8. Pottle, in BP, vii. 100, surmised that this either meant ‘This house is always open to you, James’ or ‘These collections are always open to you, James’. It seems more likely, however, that Dundas meant that it was open to JB to take notes of his own when listening to decisions being

old Gothic building’ which ‘is ill seated, and very cold in winter, from having bad doors, and no cieling [sic]’ (Stat. Acct. Scot., Vol. 2, The Lothians, p. 435). Temple parish church was the closer of the two, but Dundas would be buried at Borthwick parish church (Oxford DNB). After visiting Arniston in Apr. 1780 (see pp. 69–70 n. 2), JB would record (Journ. 24 Apr. 1780, Laird, p. 204) that one of the guests was the then minister of Temple, the Rev. John Goldie (1727–88), who was transferred from the parish of Penicuik and admitted to the parish of Temple in 1771 (Fasti Scot. i. 349). 3. JB was no doubt keen to study, and take notes from, Graevius’s Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiæ for the purpose of his proposed work on Corsica. 4. The Epistulae (Letters) of Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (a.d. 61/2–c. 112)). They were published in nine books in Pliny’s lifetime, and a tenth book – containing his correspondence with the emperor Trajan – was published posthumously. The letters in Books I–IX ‘cast a flood of light on numerous aspects of the world of ad 100. They can (and should) be read as a social history of the early empire’ (Walsh, p. xvi). While many of the letters are on literary topics or relate to Pliny’s activities as advocate and politician, others are concerned with advice to young friends or are letters recommending worthy young men whose careers Pliny wished to further (Radice, pp. 20 and 25). The letters also ‘paint the fullest self-portrait which has survived of any Roman, with the possible exceptions of Cicero and Horace’ (ibid., p. 27). There is no record of this work in the inventory of books currently held at Arniston, and it is not known which edition was in the Arniston library at the time of JB’s visit. (For editions in the Auchinleck House library, see Boswell’s Books, #2644– 2647, pp. 309–10.) 5. Possibly a reference to Dundas’s father, Robert Dundas of Arniston, who was admitted advocate 8 July 1708, appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland

72

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 72

27/02/23 6:13 PM

11 january 1767 1788 (Fasti Scot. i. 349 and 390; Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002, 2006, Vol. 2, p. 570; Emerson, p. 492; Carlyle, pp. 332–33). Alternatively, this may be a reference to the minister of Borthwick parish, Thomas Turnbull (1701–86), admitted minister of Borthwick parish 1734, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1758 (Fasti Scot. i. 302–03). 10. MS. ‘coud’ written above deleted ‘durst’. 11. It appears that ‘I’ refers to JB and that ‘He’ refers to the person JB is talking to. A plausible reading is that JB and his interlocutor talked disapprovingly of the fact that a second bottle of claret for each had been produced, and the interlocutor said that on one occasion when the Lord President visited his house a second bottle was called for and he, as host, felt that he could not speak about it in his own house, and JB himself felt afraid to speak about the matter before the Lord President. 12. By the term ‘Infidelity’ JB generally refers to scepticism about the truth of the Christian religion, or atheism. He had experienced youthful religious doubts and perplexities, and he had been and would remain disturbed by David Hume’s scepticism. Hume’s published philosophical works at this time were A Treatise of Human Nature, Vols. i–ii, 1739, Vol. iii, 1740; Essays, Moral and Political, 2 vols., 1741– 42; Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, 1748 (published in a revised version in 1758 as An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding); Three Essays, Moral and Political, 1748; An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, 1751; Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, 4 vols., 1753; and Four Dissertations, 1757. JB recorded a conversation with SJ in London on 25 June 1763: ‘I told him how I was a very strict Christian & was turned from that to Infidelity. But that now I had got back to a very agreable way of thinking[;] That I believed the Christian Religion; tho’ I might not be clear in many particulars’ (LJ 1762–63,

made by the Court. Indeed, only a few days later, on 3 Feb. 1767, JB started to take notes of the remarks made by the individual judges in some of the cases in which he was engaged. His reported notebooks containing the judges’ remarks are held at Yale. The first such notebook was for the period 3 Feb. 1767 to 29 Nov. 1768 and 16 Nov. 1769 (Yale MS. Lg 5.5, Catalogue, iii. 1123). (The Catalogue gives the notebook’s start date as ‘[15 January]’, but the notebook actually commences with notes of the judicial remarks made at a hearing before the Inner House on 3 Feb. in the case of Countess of Caithness v. Countess Fife and Earl Fife and Sir John Sinclair (for which, see Journ. 13 Jan. and n. 14). The judicial remarks as noted by JB in that case (on pages 1–4 of the notebook) are transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 93–95.) In 1774, JB would publish a pamphlet entitled The Decision of the Court of Session upon the Question of Literary Property; in the cause John Hinton of London, Bookseller, Pursuer; against Alexander Donaldson and John Wood, Booksellers in Edinburgh, and James Meurose, Bookseller in Kilmarnock, Defenders. It contained the detailed opinions of the judges as noted by JB himself (Journ. 17 Aug. 1773, Hebrides, p. 32 and n. 7), who was one of the counsel in the case. The opinions were also set out in Hailes’s Decisions, i. 535–43. While the two records are similar in substance, they contain many differences of detail. 9. This reading is very uncertain. Another possibility is ‘Revend’ (i.e. an abbreviation of ‘Reverend’). If so, this may be a reference to the minister of Temple parish, Joseph McCormick (1733–99), M.A. (St. Andrews, 1750), D.D. (St. Andrews, 1766), ordained minister of St. Andrews 1756, admitted minister of Temple parish 1760, later transferred from Temple and admitted minister of Prestonpans 1771, Principal of the United College, St. Andrews, 1781, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1782, founder member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783, Dean of the Chapel Royal

73

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 73

27/02/23 6:13 PM

11 january 1767 with the Author of the Rambler!’ (Journ. 25 June 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 251). He had acquired a 1763 edition soon before leaving London for Holland, and wrote to WJT that he told SJ that ‘the Rambler shall accompany me round Europe, and so be a Rambler indeed. He gave me a smile of Complacency’ (14–15 July 1763, Corr. 6, p. 43). He kept the volume all his life, and it passed to his son, James Boswell (1778–1822) the younger, who inscribed it in 1797: ‘This copy of the Rambler I have heard my father mention, belonged to him before he went abroad (1763), and [travelled] with him over the continent’ (Boswell’s Books, #1794, p. 241). When so deeply despondent after his arrival in Utrecht that he feared for his sanity, JB had turned for solace to reading several of the Rambler essays, which, as he wrote to JJ, helped him recover: he ‘was roused with so noble an idea of human Nature’ that he ‘resolutely determined . . . to persist with firmness and spirit and combat the foul fiend. I have done so; and thanks to Mr. Johnson whose precepts (with the favour of God to whom I earnestly prayed to assist me) I am quite well’ (23 Sept. 1763, Corr. 1, p. 114). He wrote again to JJ testifying to the essays’ power, and urging his friend, as fellow sufferer from depression, also to acquire the collection: ‘I told you that my honoured freind Mr. Samuel Johnson had supplied me with the weapons of philosophy. It was in the Rambler that I found the causes of my woe described, and cures pointed out. I beg you may get that Book. It costs twelve shillings. But it is worth much more. Study it, and endeavour to preserve the noble sentiments which it inspires. It is the best book that england has produced for such people as you and me’ (20 Jan. 1764, Corr. 1, p. 117). JB would devote several pages of the Life of Johnson to a highly laudatory analysis of the Rambler essays: ‘I will venture to say, that in no writings whatever can be found more bark and steel [i.e. quinine and iron] for the mind’ (Life, i. 215).

p. 250). In Berlin, on 19 July 1764, he noted reading with great pleasure Thomas Reid’s An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the principles of Common Sense (1764), which he found ‘a treasure’, since with ‘strong reasoning & lively humour’ Reid ‘drove to pieces the sceptical Cobweb . . . I found myself much refreshed and very happy’ (Journ. 1, p. 42). JB records that in Karlsruhe on 14 Nov. 1764, in conversation with Karl Friedrich (1728–1811), Margrave of Baden-Durlach, JB ‘maintained the Religion of Jesus as displayed in the four Gospels’ and ‘talked with vehemence against David Hume and other Infidels who destroyed our principles and put nothing firm in their Place’ (Journ. 1, p. 218). In a journal entry of 17 Dec. 1775 (Ominous Years, p. 201), JB would refer to Hume as ‘the Great Infidel’. 13. SJ’s series of essays published as The Rambler. ‘With the Rambler . . . Johnson emerges for us as one of the great moralists of modern times’ (Rambler, WSJ, ‘Introduction’, Vol. 3, p. xxi). The papers had initially appeared every Saturday and Tuesday from Mar. 1750 to Mar. 1752. Afterwards collected (they were 208 in number, all but four of which, and parts of three others, were written by SJ), the series ‘was to go through ten numbered printings’ in SJ’s lifetime, and long before SJ’s death ‘the Rambler, as much as the Dictionary, had permanently established his reputation’ (ibid., p. xxii). The essays appeared also in Edinburgh, in James Elphinston’s edition, ‘brought out with Johnson’s approval in Edinburgh between 1750 and 1752, while the original numbers were still appearing in London’ (ibid., p. xxxiv). Their impact on the young JB was powerful. The essays, he had written, contain ‘a rich Store of Morality and knowledge of human life embellished with great Imagination’ (Journ. 6 July 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 260). About a month after his first meeting with SJ, he exclaimed to him: ‘Had I but thought some years ago, that I should pass an evening [at the Mitre Tavern in Fleet Street, London]

74

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 74

27/02/23 6:13 PM

12 january 1767

Monday 12 January Breakfasted early. President walk’d you about in room & told you with fire how Justiciary Court brought itself down — Sending one Judge by himself to circuit1 [ — ] not sending impertinent Counsel to prison2 — complained of putting improper people into that office3 — talk’d of political connections with masterly force. You came all in in coach — Miss Dundas4 fine girl — lik’d her very well. Was retenu5 for fear of appearing Lover — quite proper — was really sorry to think of her & her sister who might perhaps become maiden Aunts — Safe journey thro’ monstrous deep snow to town6 — sorry to part — Heard of Willie Webster’s being drowned7 — sorry — but felt mind hardened — Mr Frazer dined with you8 — Afternoon Miss ––––9 very well. istrate may reprove the delinquent, of his own knowledge, and upon the spot’ (Hume, ii. 135–36). Ramsay, i. 336–37, states that Dundas ‘behaved with good-breeding to the Bar, and with dignified courtesy to his brethren, whilst he made every one sensible of the respect that was due to the chair’. His obituary in Scots Mag. May 1790, lii. 245, stated that he never interfered during submissions by counsel ‘unless to restrain what was either manifestly foreign to the subject, or what wounded, in his apprehension, the dignity of the Court’. 3. Ramsay says, at i. 347–48, that by the time Thomas Miller of Barskimming was appointed Lord Justice-Clerk (14 June 1766) ‘a new style of defending prisoners was coming in, which in times of greater strictness would not have been tolerated. Besides using great freedoms with law . . . , [advocates] were sometimes deficient in respect to the Court. As the law then stood, the prisoner’s counsel spoke immediately before the jury was enclosed, nor were the judges understood to have title to interfere. What wonder, then, that bold asseverations and perverse ingenuity should sometimes induce half-learned, pragmatical jurymen to acquit culprits of whose guilt nobody entertained any doubt? Nor was the benefit of this abuse of eloquence confined, as formerly, to the rich and well connected, for these gentlemen went sometimes most improper lengths for murderers and sheepstealers [a clear reference to JB’s defence

1. The High Court of Justiciary sat in Edinburgh ‘in a hall on one of the upper floors of a building known as the “New Tolbooth” (also referred to as the “Council House”), which was connected to the south-west corner of the Church of St Giles [in the High Street] by a covered passage’ (BEJ, p. 11; see also Miller, pp. 54–55 and 61, and Spottiswood, p. vi). ‘Prior to 1746 two judges were required for each circuit, but the Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746 (20 Geo. 2, c. 43) provided that it was competent for one judge to dispatch the business of a circuit court in the necessary absence of a colleague’ (BEJ, p. 45 n. 4). 2. Dundas means that if any counsel was impertinent when present in court he should be sent to prison for contempt of court. The legal position with regard to contempt of court was as set out by Hume: ‘[E]very Judge, of whatsoever degree, has power to punish summarily, and of his own motion, all such disorders or misdemeanours, committed in Court during the progress of a trial, as are a disturbance of the Judge in the exercise of his functions, or a violation of that deference which ought to be observed towards him, when proceeding in his office . . . [T]he use of any threatening or contumelious speech or gesture there, with relation to the Judge or the trial; any open expression of censure or approbation of the proceedings of the Judge or the jury . . . All these are examples of this sort of petulant contempt, for which the mag-

75

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 75

27/02/23 6:13 PM

12 january 1767 ble, prudent, retenu” and had promised himself “a new course of retenue” to cultivate a “mild and grave dignity” in conversation. The pose was in keeping with the self-control, prudence, and high-minded morality with which he wished to impress Belle de Zuylen (25, 28 Feb., Holland, Heinemann pp. 164–65, McGraw-Hill pp. 168, 170; see Courtney, pp. 98, 102–04)’ (Journ. 1, p. 5 n. 1). But the expression was a self-instruction he never could quite adhere to. On his thirty-seventh birthday, he would write: ‘Resolved after thirty-seven, retenu, etc.’ (Journ. 29 Oct. 1777, Extremes, p. 191). 6. JB is returning from Arniston to the family residence, at Blair’s Land, Parliament Close (see Introduction, p. 30 n. 215). 7. William Webster (b. 21 Dec. 1750), JB’s sixteen-year-old cousin on the maternal side. The circumstances of his death by drowning on 9 Jan. (Fasti Scot. i. 120) have not been ascertained. He was a son of JB’s mother Euphemia’s older sister, Mary (Erskine) Webster (1715–66), who had died less than two months earlier (28 Nov. 1766), and her husband, the Rev. Alexander Webster (1707–84), who, before being appointed minister at the Tolbooth Church, Edinburgh, 1737, the same year in which he married, had been minister in Culross, where the Erskine sisters had grown up. Alexander Webster was a leader of the strict ‘high flying’ or ‘Evangelical’ party in the Church of Scotland, appointed as chaplain to Frederick, Prince of Wales, 1748, elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1753, D.D. (Edinburgh, 1760), author of a highly regarded census entitled An account of the number of people in Scotland in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-five (1755). JB had described him as ‘a man of great talents – little literature, but great application to business. He is vivacious and loves society, and is very jolly and merry over a bottle’. JB described his aunt as ‘a woman of great humour, luxuriant and wild, so that she will give a loose to every sally of imagination; she has joined

of John Reid in the 1766 trial], who had neither money nor friends. The JusticeClerk . . . felt often indignant at the bad spirit that began to appear among the lawyers . . . [R]eproofs and the sharpest remonstrances seemed to render them more uncandid and audacious.’ In a footnote, Ramsay explains that the problem began at a trial in 1765. ‘A pointed attack was made on one of the judges, and the rest were implicated in the censure in very exceptionable terms. An act of adjournal was made to repress such practices in the future, when fine or imprisonment would have been more to the purpose.’ Ramsay goes on to mention Andrew Crosbie and Alexander Lockhart (for whom, see p. 127 n. 2) as particular examples of counsel involved ‘in that branch of business’ (i. 347 n. 1). 4. The final five letters of the name have been scored off with a modern pen, leaving only what appears to be the ‘D’ visible. JB had hopes of seeing Miss Dundas again, later in the spring, at Auchinleck. When renewing the invitation to Dundas to visit Auchinleck (see pp. 69–70 n. 2), he would include ‘not only My Lady President [Dundas’s wife], but also Miss Dundas’ (18 Apr. 1767, Corr. 5, p. 148). 5. ‘Lit. “Restrained, reserved” (Robert, s.v. “retenue”), an uncommon term (not in Dict. SJ or the OED for the eighteenth century), associated by JB with self-restraint in speech, “the power of suppressing what it is improper to utter” (Hypochondriack no. XXIII [Aug. 1779], in Bailey, ii. 284). JB adopted it from the French, spelling it with various accents (most often “retenué” in London; in Holland usually without an accent, except for “retenúe” on 5 Oct. 1763 and 19 Feb. 1764, and “reténu” on 20 May 1764). JB had used the expression close to 40 times in the London memoranda, and about 30 times in the Dutch memoranda. But he had omitted it in the fully written journal, suggesting that the term was a private one, usually self-admonitory: “Be retenué”. Recently [that is, in Feb. 1764] he had also noted approvingly “you was sensi-

76

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 76

27/02/23 6:13 PM

13 january 1767 ingenious agreeable man’ (Journ. 28 Oct. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 97). He is listed in Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 147, and in Williamson, p. 26, where he is listed under “Gentlemen” as ‘clerk of Excise, bristow-street [i.e. Bristo Street]’. Before the elevation of Robert Dundas of Arniston as Lord President in 1760, ‘the dinner-hour of the people of fashion was three o’clock, and that of writers, shopkeepers, &c., two, when the bell rung; but his late and irregular hours made the ladies agree to postpone their meal till four’ (Ramsay, i. 337 n. 1). The diaries of JB’s brother John (for whom, see Journ. 18 Mar. 1768 and n. 4) indicate in numerous journal entries that in the years 1767 to 1769 dinner in Lord Auchinleck’s house was normally between three and four o’clock, except on Sundays when it was normally between one and two o’clock (Lt. John Boswell’s Journals (Yale MS. C 404:2–3)). 9. JB’s mistress, Mrs. Dodds (for whom, see Introduction, p. 30), whom he had met and begun an affair with at Moffat in May 1766, and who was now in lodgings in Edinburgh, where the affair continued.

with this a mixture of Presbyterian cant and vulgarity that renders her quite a caricatura’ (Journ. 27 Oct. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 96; Oxford DNB; Fasti Scot. i. 119–20; Carlyle, pp. 250–51). Though William Webster makes no other appearance in JB’s surviving writings, the Webster and Boswell families formed important parts of each other’s Edinburgh social circles, with JB’s journals and letters making frequent mention of William’s siblings, John, James, George, Alexander and Ann (for James and George, see Journ. 22 Feb. and n. 1; and see Ominous Years, Chart V, p. 378). It was Alexander Webster who would bring about the reconciliation beteeen JB and Robert Dundas of Arniston at a dinner at Arniston on 24 Apr. 1780 (see pp. 69–70 n. 2), for which JB felt himself ‘obliged to Dr. Webster’s friendly interposition on this occasion’ (Journ. 24 Apr. 1780, Laird, p. 206). 8. George Frazer (or Fraser) (c. 1701– 74), who would serve for over fifty years as Deputy-Auditor of Excise in Edinburgh (Scots Mag. Oct. 1774, xxxvi. 559; Corr. 5, p. 17 n. 1). JB had described him as ‘a most

Tuesday 13 January Father[,] David1 & you dind Mr. Frazer[’]s. Dr. Gregory2 there — At 4 faculty-meeting3 [ — ] a thing you have long wished to see — Just, fancy realised. Competition to be Poor’s Lawyer — curious — propos’d to make them more numerous4 — Wight5 oppos’d alteration of6 ancient rule — You seconded — & rather declined for this time than alter custom.7 After this Clerihue’s8 — Excellent entertainment — mirth & jollity — you drank freely — Paoli9 drunk by faculty — you returned thanks — They cup of thanks bravo ––––. Mr. W Wilson10 waited to consult you11 — Home 20 minutes before 8 — Consulted tollerably — before 9 Miss ––––[.] [Q]uite fond — She reprovd you for drinking so much12 — Home & had Clerk13 & corrected Caithness memorial14 till 12 — medical practice, elected ‘Mediciner’ (Professor of Medicine) at King’s College 1755, but failed to set up permanent lectures on medicine at the College owing to the insufficient number of students, elected Fellow of the Royal Society 1756, moved to Edinburgh in 1764, where his medical practice

1. Younger of JB’s two surviving brothers, David. 2. Dr. John Gregory (1724–73), physician and author, M.D. (King’s College, Aberdeen, 1746), Regent Professor of Philosophy at King’s College 1746–49, moved to London in 1754 to develop his

77

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 77

27/02/23 6:13 PM

13 january 1767 side, also lit by a window from the Cowgate end, but shorter, only 30 feet in length; and, in the balance of the space, a room with a chimney, “the Fire Room”, measuring about 20 feet by 25, lit by a west-facing window’ (MBFA, p. xxxiv). 4. The minutes of the Faculty meeting are set out in MBFA, pp. 170–73. Nothing is said there about any competition to be appointed Lawyers for the Poor (i.e. advocates who could be called upon by the Court of Session to represent, free of charge, litigants having the benefit of the Poor’s Roll (‘being the roll of parties to actions who, by virtue of being poor and having a probable ground of action, were entitled to pursue or defend as a pauper’ (LPJB 1, p. 96 n. 340; see also Russell, pp. 185–88)), merely that four named advocates were appointed. Nor is there any record in the minutes of a proposal to increase the number of Lawyers for the Poor. The minutes mention that JB was appointed one of the fifteen ‘publick Examinators’, i.e. one of the examiners appointed annually to try applicants to the Faculty at the stage of the examination process at which each candidate was required to defend publicly a thesis, in Latin, containing a dissertation on an aspect of the civil law (MBFA, p. xlii). 5. Alexander Wight (d. 1793), advocate (admitted 6 Mar. 1754), later SolicitorGeneral for Scotland 1783–84 (Fac. Adv., p. 219). 6. MS. ‘alteration of’ interlined. 7. Presumably meaning that JB chose to decline an opportunity to be appointed one of the Lawyers for the Poor rather than supporting the proposal to increase their number. 8. ‘Clerihue’s’ was a tavern, known as the ‘Star and Garter’, in Writers’ Court, off the north side of the High Street opposite the Luckenbooths (a row of buildings immediately to the north of the Church of St. Giles), which was kept by John Clerihue (d. 1769 (OPRDB)). In Guy Mannering, Sir Walter Scott ‘exercised his magic to immortalise the tavern as the scene of

rapidly expanded, admitted Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 1765, elected Professor of the Practice of Physic at Edinburgh University 1766, appointed physician to King George III in Scotland 1766; author of the celebrated A Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man, with those of the Animal World (1765), a series of lectures entitled Observations on the Duties and Offices of a Physician and on the Method of Prosecuting Enquiries in Philosophy (1770) – later published in a revised edition entitled Lectures on the Duties and Qualifications of a Physician (1772), Elements of the Practice of Physic (1772), and the very popular A Father’s Legacy to his Daughters, published posthumously in 1774 (Oxford DNB; see also Corr. 6, p. 158 n. 5). JB would write next month to WJT that Gregory’s Comparative View ‘is ingenious & elegant & He himself is one of the most amiable pleasant Men alive’ (To WJT, 1 Feb.–8 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 167). After his death in 1773, JB would record a conversation in London in which ‘I observed that few men are missed when they die. They are like trees cut down in a thick forest. We do not perceive the blank. But . . . Gregory was a distinguished tree, as the apple tree among the trees of the wood’ (Journ. 6 Apr. 1773, Defence, Heinemann p. 171, McGraw-Hill p. 164.) 3. That is, at the meeting of the Faculty of Advocates. As to where Faculty meetings took place in those days, ‘[n]o confident answer can be given, but the possibilities were limited . . . Faculty premises consisted of the Library in the south half of the Laigh Hall [below the Parliament House (for which, see p. 108 n. 4)] . . . [This] was split longways by a north–south wall, built on the line of the central pillars, to give two equal spaces each measuring about 50 feet by 25. The whole of one of these spaces to the east of the central wall was given to the big, galleried library-room lit by a window from the Cowgate end, “the Great Room”. The other space to the west of the central wall was divided into two rooms, a galleried library-room, like the one on the other

78

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 78

27/02/23 6:13 PM

13 january 1767 ers in the case of Hugh Kerr v. Margaret and Lilias Thomson (for which, see pp. 164–66 n. 4) (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, p. 44 and p. 372). 12. Evidently, JB has arrived at Mrs. Dodds’s lodging showing the effects of the rounds of toasting Paoli at the Faculty of Advocates meeting. 13. James Brown (d. 1788), JB’s law clerk from c. 1766 to c. 1770 (Journ. 28–30 Mar.; Journ. 17, 18 July 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann pp. 246, 251, McGrawHill pp. 232, 236). ‘He signed on as a cadet in the Bengal Army in 1771 and by 1784 had risen to the rank of captain (V. C. P. Hodson, List of the Officers of the Bengal Army, 1758–1834, 1927, i. 224). JB and Brown [would exchange] letters during the period 1770–78 (Reg. Let.), but none of these has been reported. Brown died in Monghyr, India, in Sept. 1788 (From William Brown, 1 Feb. 1790 [Yale MS. C 598])’ (Corr. 5, pp. 203–04 n. 1). 14. A lengthy Memorial for the Countess of Caithness – Margaret Primrose (d. 1785), second daughter of Archibald Primrose, 1st Earl of Rosebery (1664–1723), and his wife Dorothea Cressy (1673–1720 (Ancestry, McConnell/McGillivray Family Tree)). She was the widow of Alexander Sinclair (d. 1765), 9th Earl of Caithness. The Memorial was in the Countess’s action in the Court of Session against her daughter, Countess Fife (Dorothea Sinclair (born 1739), the only child of the Countess’s marriage), and her daughter’s husband, Earl Fife, James Duff (1729–1809), 2nd Earl Fife (peerage of Ireland), M.P. Banffshire 1754–84, later M.P. Elginshire 1784– 90, created Baron Duff of Fife (peerage of Great Britain) 1790, and Sir John Sinclair of Stevenson (d. 1789), Bt., who, on the death of the 9th Earl of Caithness, had succeeded to the Earl’s estate, including Murchill (or Murkle or Murkley), Caithness, under a deed of entail executed in 1761 (Scots Peer. ii. 346–47, vii. 221–22; Douglas’s Baronage, p. 90; Comp. Bar. ii. 422; Comp. Peer. v. 377; Namier and Brooke, ii.

Counsellor Pleydell’s merry nocturnal ploys’ (Stuart, p. 46). 9. The Corsican general and leader of the patriot insurgency, Pasquale Paoli, for whom see Introduction, pp. 11–12, and p. 52 n. 21. JB’s recent travels in Corsica and his interest in Paoli would have been known to his legal colleagues, and accounts of the Corsican struggle for independence under Paoli’s leadership had appeared with some frequency in the Scottish press (see Brown). 10. William Wilson of Howden (1710– 87), W.S. (admitted 15 Jan. 1739) (W.S. Register, p. 344). JB would long retain a particular regard for Wilson on account of his giving JB his first fee, on 29 July 1766, the day that he was admitted advocate, when Wilson instructed him to draft a Memorial for the pursuers in the cause of James Johnston & Co. v. Quintin Hamilton and John McAulay (Consultation Book; Corr. 7, p. 249 n. 1; LPJB 1, p. 3 and p. 370). The Memorial, dated 1 Aug. 1766 and extending to nine pages in the handwriting of an unidentified clerk (NRS CS228/IJ/I/83), is transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 4–9. In the action, the pursuers, a hosiery manufacturing company in Glasgow, alleged that one of their stocking frames in the possession of one of the company’s weavers had been wrongly seized by the weaver’s former landlord on the strength of a claim for outstanding house rent (BEJ, p. 37). Relations between Wilson and JB continued to be cordial, and Wilson would visit the Auchinleck estate (while JB was in Edinburgh) in late 1769 and send JB a complimentary account of it (5 Oct. 1769, Corr. 7, p. 248). Three years after that visit, JB would write, ‘He has indeed given me a great many more fees’. At that time they were travelling as fellow coach passengers when Wilson was almost sixty-two, and JB noted that he ‘has nothing of an old man about him except experience, being healthy and cheerful though most laborious in his profession’ (Journ. 14 Mar. 1772, Defence, Heinemann pp. 30–31, McGraw-Hill p. 29). 11. On this day, Wilson instructed JB to draft a Representation for the defend-

79

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 79

27/02/23 6:13 PM

13 january 1767 for mourning and for aliment and also entitled to a sum in place of a jointure-house. The case was remitted to the Lord Ordinary to determine the relevant amounts (Faculty Decisions, 1765–69, iv. 101–03; Morison’s Dictionary, 431–33). By interlocutor dated 12 Feb., the Lord Ordinary (the Lord Justice-Clerk, Thomas Miller of Barskimming) found the Countess entitled to aliment in the sum of £150 from the time of her husband’s death to Whitsunday 1766, mournings in the sum of £300, and a yearly sum of £50 in lieu of a jointure-house from Whitsunday 1766 for the remainder of her life. On 27 Feb., after further procedure, the Inner House, of consent, increased the award of aliment to £200 (Court of Session Extracted Processes, Durie’s Office, 10 Mar. 1767 (NRS CS25); Hailes’s Decisions, i. 181–82).

346). The printed Memorial, dated 16 Jan. 1766 (but actually 1767) and extending to eleven pages (Signet Library 137:11), is transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 86–92. The Countess was claiming payment of aliment and mournings from the defenders as the representatives of her late husband, and was also seeking the provision of a jointurehouse. A commentator has observed that JB’s ‘writing from beginning to end of this eleven-page memorial is clear, fluid, reasonable, and in places, appropriately light in tone. His deployment of specific legal terms in no way cuts against, or obscures, the essential force of his carefully structured argument’ (Scanlan, pp. 39–65, at p. 53, quoted in LPJB 2, p. xiv). The Inner House of the Court of Session considered the matter on 3 Feb. 1767 and found that the Countess was entitled to an allowance

Wednesday 14 January Up at 6 & wrote Representation1 [ — ] Drew also during the day Petition for Cairncross[.]2 [D]in’d Mr. Stobie3 with Claudius4 — Supt Capt Cunningham,5 very comfortable — 1. Presumably the Representation JB was instructed to draft by William Wilson, W.S., on 13 Jan. 1767 in the case of Hugh Kerr v. Margaret and Lilias Thomson (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, p. 44 and p. 372). 2. The Petition was in the case of Hugh Cairncross v. William Heatly and Others. It was in this case that JB, on or about 4 Dec. 1766, had made his first appearance before the Inner House of the Court of Session (LPJB 1, p. 55). The case concerned the entitlement to the estate comprising ‘the lands of Hillslap (or Hillslop or Hilslop), also known as Calfhill, in Roxburghshire’ (LPJB 1, p. 55; Appellant’s Case in the appeal of Hugh Cairncross to the House of Lords (Parliamentary Archives, Appeal Cases and Writs of Error 1769–70, HL/ PO/JU/4/3/16)). In a letter to Sir Alexander Dick (for whom, see pp. 96–97 n. 3),

JB referred to this case as ‘the great Cause of Cairncross’. ‘I am’, he explained, ‘for the Descendant of an ancient family who after an obscurity of several generations lays claim to the estate of his forefathers. You know my old feudal Soul and how much a Cause of this kind must interest me’ (To Sir Alexander Dick, 9 Dec. 1766, Corr. 5, p. 93). Sir Alexander later reported to JB that many of JB’s legal brethren dining at Clerihue’s tavern had spoken with full approval of JB’s long speech before the Lords (From Sir Alexander Dick, 13 Dec. 1766, Corr. 5, p. 95).   The land in question, north-east of Galashiels, had been possessed by members of the Cairncross family since 1569, but in 1753 Hugh Cairncross, the 6th and last laird, who had held the estate since 1707, died without issue. ‘The estate then passed

80

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 80

27/02/23 6:13 PM

14 january 1767 would appeal against this interlocutor to the House of Lords. On 9 Mar. 1769, the House of Lords would dismiss the appeal and affirm the Court of Session’s interlocutor (LPJB 1, p. 60; Appellant’s Case and Judgment of the House of Lords, Parliamentary Archives, Appeal Cases and Writs of Error 1769–70, HL/PO/JU/4/3/16; JHL 9 Mar. 1769, xxxii. 285). JB was not involved in the appeal to the House of Lords. 3. John Stobie (c. 1715–92), writer in Edinburgh, admitted notary public 5 July 1745, admitted agent in the Court of Session 21 Jan. 1755, law clerk to Lord Auchinleck (LPJB 2, p. 415; Finlay, i. 239, No. 1263; Williamson, p. 68; OPRDB). JB, in the 1770s and 1780s after the years of bitter clashes with his father, especially over the question of the inheritance and disposition of the Auchinleck estate, would come to detest Stobie, who was aligned with Lord Auchinleck, ‘for his impertinence’ (Later Years, p. 231). 4. Claud Boswell (later Claud Irvine Boswell) (1743–1824) of Balmuto (in Fife), JB’s first cousin once removed, admitted advocate 5 Aug. 1766, a week after JB, later appointed sheriff-depute of Fife and Kinross (Mar. 1780) and Lord of Session, as Lord Balmuto, succeeding Lord Monboddo (21 June 1799) (Fac. Adv., p. 18; College of Justice, p. 544; Oxford DNB). He would take the additional surname of Irvine in 1783 on marrying Anne Irvine (d. 1841), heiress of the Kingcausie estate (in Maryculter parish, Kincardineshire (OGS)). Son of Margaret Henderson (d. 1790) and John Boswell (d. 1749), writer in Edinburgh, younger brother of Lord Auchinleck’s father, James Boswell, 7th Laird of Auchinleck (Ominous Years, Chart III, p. 376). John Boswell had purchased the Balmuto estate in 1722 from Andrew Boswell, 10th of Balmuto, who had been obliged by financial difficulty to sell it (Burke’s Landed Gentry, 17th ed., i. 229; Burke’s LGS, p. 83). (The Boswells of Auchinleck were cadets of the Boswells of Balmuto, the 1st Laird of Auchinleck, Thomas Boswell (for whom, see p. 157 n. 2),

to Hugh’s two maiden sisters Elizabeth and Janet who both died in January, 1759’ (Cairncross History, pp. 66, 78). According to an article by T. Craig-Brown (The Scotsman, 26 Dec. 1919), ‘It was long and widely known that after the death of the last laird and his sisters, there would be a fight for the succession, and expectation was not belied’ (quoted in Cairncross History, p. 80).   By virtue of judicial proceedings known as service of heirs, William Heatly, smith in Newton, Thomas Miln (or Mill), schoolmaster (Cairncross History, p. 78), tenant in Clintmains, and William Myrtle (or Mirtle or Mertle) (1739–69 (OPRBB; date of death inferred from Sarcar, p. 123)), mariner, were served ‘heirs-portioners’ of the estate in question.   However, Hugh Cairncross (d. 1809 (Cal. Merc. 29 July 1809)), mason in Galashiels (later an architect in Edinburgh, involved, among other projects, in work at Culzean and Dalquharran Castles in Ayrshire supervising construction as clerk of works for Robert Adam (Dictionary of Scottish Architects, ), produced a genealogy which, he claimed, established his descent from former lairds of Hillslap, and he brought an action of reduction in the Court of Session for setting aside the services in favour of Heatly and the others who had been served heirsportioners.   JB’s Petition (which was primarily concerned with an allegation against Cairncross that he had concealed an old indenture that was prejudicial to his case) craved the court to order an immediate production of the relevant services and other papers. The printed Petition, dated 15 Jan. 1766 (but actually 1767) and extending to fifteen pages (NLS APS.3.80.22), is transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 55–59. On 8 Aug., the court would pronounce an interlocutor finding that Hugh Cairncross had ‘not instructed a sufficient Title to insist in this Action’ and granting decree of absolvitor in favour of the defenders. Cairncross

81

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 81

27/02/23 6:13 PM

14 january 1767 of JB’s son and heir, Alexander, and in 1822 it would be to Balmuto House that Sir Alexander would be carried, and where he would then succumb to his wounds, after being shot in a duel. Lord Balmuto ‘was devastated by what he saw and never really recovered’ (Moss, p. 134). 5. Capt. Alexander MontgomeryCuninghame (or Montgomerie-Cuninghame) (d. 1770) of Kirktonholm (an estate in Lanarkshire (Comp. Bar. iv. 285)). He was the son and heir of a baronet, Sir David Cuninghame (d. 1770) of Corsehill (an estate in Stewarton parish, in the Cunninghame district of Ayrshire (ibid.)), and Penelope Montgomery, niece and heiress of Sir Walter Montgomery, Bt., of Kirktonholm (Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed., p. 681), but predeceased his father by a short period and therefore did not succeed to the baronetcy. ‘It is said that he served in the army, taking part in “the wars in Flanders” (that is, during the latter stages of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48)). It is also said that in 1761, when he inherited the estate of Kirktonholm from his maternal aunt, Anne Montgomery, he was obliged to adopt the name of Montgomery to comply with a clause in the relevant deed of entail and that he therefore changed his surname to Montgomery-Cuninghame’ (LPJB 2, p. 125; see also Ayr and Wigton, III. ii. 592; Comp. Bar. iv. 285; Corr. 5, p. 15 n. 3). He was married to JB’s first cousin Elisabeth (or Elizabeth) Montgomery-Cuninghame (or Montgomerie-Cuninghame) (d. 1776) (Ominous Years, Chart VI, p. 379) of Lainshaw (an estate in Stewarton parish, Ayrshire (OGS)). She was the eldest daughter of Veronica Boswell, the sister of Lord Auchinleck, and David Montgomerie of Lainshaw. She succeeded to the estate of Lainshaw when her brother, James Montgomerie, died on 16 Dec. 1766 (LPJB 2, p. 125; see also Corr. 5, p. 15 nn. 2 and 3). Her youngest sister, Margaret Montgomerie (c. 1738–89), would marry JB on 25 Nov. 1769. ‘Legal papers in Court of Session proceedings in 1765 indicate that in court actions in the 1760s Captain

being a younger son of David Boswell (d. 1493), 2nd of Balmuto (Burke’s LGS, p. 82).) In spring of the preceding year, Claud Boswell and JB had spent several weeks at Auchinleck being coached by Lord Auchinleck, as both prepared for the examination in Scots law (see Introduction, pp. 2–3). JB, initially pleased with the arrangement, wrote to JJ: ‘My Cousin Claudius has been several weeks with us which has been a great advantage to us both. He is a worthy sensible fellow, and I am perswaded will make a figure’ (To JJ, 4 May 1766, Corr. 1, p. 214). But JB’s estimate of his kinsman soon fell somewhat, with a particular issue at about this time being his failure to share JB’s reverence for their ancient family lineage. David Boswell, replying on 30 May 1766 to a letter from JB (not reported) of 17 May 1766, had written: ‘You observe very right with regard to Claudius, he not only wants [i.e. lacks], but he even pretends to despise those who have a proper Respect for the Antiquity of Family. I hope I shall never do this . . . but shall always have some reason to be proud when I reflect on the ancient & honorable Family from which I am descended’ (Yale MS. C 476). JB would write to WJT, on 30 Mar., ‘You know my grand object is the ancient Family of Auchinleck[,] a venerable & noble principle’ (Corr. 6, p. 182). Two years later, JB would write of his cousin in terms indicating that he regarded him as being somewhat unimaginative and narrowminded (see Journ. 29 Apr. 1769 (p. 348 below)). One of his sisters, Elizabeth (d. 1799), would become Lord Auchinleck’s second wife, on 25 Nov. 1769. In 1775, JB would write: ‘There is little congenial sympathy between him and me; so that, though I regard him as a worthy cousin, we meet seldom’ (Journ. 8 Dec. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 193). He is said to have been ‘a robust and athletic man’ who ‘spoke with a strong Scotch accent’ and ‘was fond of his joke’ (Kay, ii. 277–78). After JB’s death in 1795, he would assume an affectionate guardianlike role, along with JB’s executor, Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, overseeing the affairs

82

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 82

27/02/23 6:13 PM

15 january 1767 of Foot; the Army List for 1758 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/6) and subsequent volumes up to the Army List for 1762 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/11) show him as being a Lieutenant in the 62nd Regiment of Foot and as having had that rank in that regiment from 7 October 1757; and the list of officers on half-pay in the Army List for 1765 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/15) refers to a Lieutenant Alexander Montgomery, formerly of the 111th Regiment of Foot, which was disbanded in 1763. There do not appear to be any references in the Army Lists for the period to a Captain Alexander Cuninghame, and so it seems that Captain Alexander Montgomery-Cuninghame may in fact have adopted the name Montgomery before 1761 and may have remained in the army until at least 1763’ (LPJB 2, p. 125 n. 6).

Montgomery-Cuninghame’s surname was sometimes stated as being simply Montgomery . . . It is not possible to identify him with any certainty in the Army Lists for the period, but there are two possible candidates. The Army List for 1757 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/4) and subsequent volumes up to the Army List for 1765 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/15) refer to a Captain Alexander Montgomery of the 43rd Regiment of Foot, who is stated as having had the rank of Captain in the army from 17 August 1747 and in that regiment from 21 September 1756. The Army List for 1762 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/11) refers to a Captain Alexander Montgomery of the 111th Regiment of Foot, who is stated as having had the rank of Captain from 16 October 1761 and as having transferred to that regiment from the 62nd Regiment

Thursday 15 January Opened cause of poor Ross1 — was pretty compos’d — Evening call’d Miss ––––. Gentleman with her — came away Jealous. Erskine2 came — very happy together. 1. The case of Poor Robert Ross v. Magistrates of Inverness in which JB represented Ross, who was referred to as ‘poor’ because he had the benefit of the Poor’s Roll (for which, see p. 78 n. 4). The hearing on 15 Jan. 1767 was before the Inner House of the Court of Session (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, p. 372). The following day, the court pronounced an interlocutor finding for the defenders. JB was thereupon instructed to draft a reclaiming petition appealing against the interlocutor. The printed reclaiming petition, dated 24 Jan. 1767 and extending to nine pages (Advocates’ Library, MEAD 58:20), is transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 96–101. The case concerned events that had taken place over ten years earlier, in 1756. Page 9 of the reclaiming petition (LPJB 1, p. 101) states: ‘Some of your Lordships were of opinion, that the long delay of this process was a dead weight

upon it; but your petitioner earnestly intreats it may be considered, that [various unfortunate circumstances] have kept him back all this time from claiming the protection of your Lordships.’ The reclaiming petition explains (on pages 1–2) that in spring 1756, Ross, who was then a chaisehirer in Edinburgh, was in Inverness when he was ordered by the magistrates to make one of his horses available to Ensign Alexander McIntosh of the 42nd Regt. of Foot (the Royal Highland Regiment (or Black Watch)), who had actually been promoted to Lt. on 29 Jan. 1756 (Army List, 1756, p. 64 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/3)), to enable him to ride as far as Corry­ brough (an estate 16 miles south-east of Inverness). Ross refused to comply with the order, whereupon town officers were sent to arrest him. He violently resisted arrest but was finally overpowered and was imprisoned

83

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 83

27/02/23 6:13 PM

15 january 1767 regard to indignities done to magistrates. But, with all submission, your petitioner cannot think that any insult was offered by him to the magistrates of Inverness . . . The exception . . . was certainly intended to preserve the dignity of judges and magistrates . . . But your Lordships will not surely extend this exception to borough-officers, to the under vermin of the law’ (LPJB 1, pp. 98–99). JB went on to mention (on page 8) that when the court gave its judgment the Lords seemed to be of the view that there was no animus injuriandi on the part of the magistrates, but he argued that there were ‘some pretty strong appearances of their ill-will and resentment at [the petitioner]’ (LPJB 1, p. 101). However, all was to no avail, for on 14 Feb. 1767 the court pronounced an interlocutor adhering to their former interlocutor (ibid.). 2. JB’s friend and early literary collaborator the Hon. Andrew Erskine (1740–93), a son of Alexander Erskine (d. 1756), 5th Earl of Kellie, and his second wife, Janet Pitcairn (1699–1776 ()), a younger brother of Thomas Alexander Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie (for whom, see p. 98 n. 4), and of Archibald Erskine (1736–97) who would succeed as 7th Earl (Scots Peer. v. 88–90; Corr. 9, pp. 56–57 n. 2). Erskine had been Lt. in the 71st Regt. of Foot, which disbanded in Apr. 1763, after which he had been placed on half-pay (Army List, 1765, p. 156 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/15)). On 15 Nov. 1765, he had been commissioned Lt. in the 24th Regt. of Foot (Army List, 1766, p. 78 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/16)), but he would resign his commission in 1769–70 (he features in the Army List for 1769 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/19) but not in the Army List for 1770 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/20)). He had now just returned to Edinburgh after an abbreviated stay with his Regiment, at this time stationed in Gibraltar, where it had been since 1763 and would remain until 1769. He had been summoned to join it in late May 1766, as he wrote to JJ

for eleven days without any warrant of commitment having been granted (LPJB 1, pp. 96–97). The reclaiming petition goes on to state (on pages 2–3): ‘During the time that he was thus incarcerated, one of his horses was pressed by order of the Provost for the use of Ensign McIntosh, who, as might be well expected, treated it in such a manner, that it died soon after its return. Another of his horses was forcibly taken out by one Geddes, who sometimes acts as a constable; and this horse was also treated in such a manner, that your petitioner never saw him again . . . ; and both his chaises were broken and destroyed; and his two remaining horses, partly from want, and partly from ill usage, did not long survive the others. And . . . Upon a complaint given in to the magistrates, by the said Ensign McIntosh, your petitioner was found guilty of a riot, and contempt of authority, and fined in £24 Scots; till the payment of which, he was ordained to remain in prison. Your petitioner was thus deprived of all that he had in the world, and reduced to a state of extreme indigence; and as he considered this whole train of misfortunes to proceed from the illegal and arbitrary power which had been used against him, he was advised to bring a process of oppression and wrongous imprisonment before your Lordships’ (LPJB 1, p. 97). The reclaiming petition explains (on page 3) that, in giving their judgment, the court ‘went upon . . . the common right of police, by which magistrates of boroughs may compel such as set up in any business within their liberties to serve the liedges at reasonable rates’ (LPJB 1, p. 98). With regard to the claim of ‘wrongous imprisonment’, JB submitted (on pages 4–6) that under the Criminal Procedure Act 1701 (RPS, 1700/10/234), ‘which must always be considered as one of the great bullwarks of the liberty of the subject, no person can be committed to prison, in order to trial, without a written warrant of commitment, which, in this case, is not even pretended to have been granted. It is true, that the act has an exception with

84

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 84

27/02/23 6:13 PM

16 january 1767 speculation and has none of the common notions of mankind’ (Journ. 30 Oct. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 98). Accompanying two of his sisters and his brother-in-law (Walter Macfarlane, for whom see p. 86 n. 2), he had arrived in London on 1 Dec. 1762, about two weeks after JB himself, and he figures frequently in JB’s LJ 1762–63, which reports various fluctuations in his feelings for AE: at one point, comparing the closeness he felt at that time to JJ and WJT, JB wrote that he ‘liked’ GD and AE ‘much’, but ‘considered them more as literary partners, & as Companions, than as friends’ (Journ. 7 July 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 264; for an extended account of JB’s oscillating feelings on the quality of his friendship with AE, see James J. Caudle, ‘Introduction’ to Corr. 9, pp. xlv–lvi). JB induced AE in 1763 to join him in the facetious publication of a volume of their letters, Letters Between the Honourable Andrew Erskine, and James Boswell, Esq. (for the texts of these published letters, and of the surviving originals, see Corr. 9), and with GD they published a pamphlet, Critical Strictures on the New Tragedy of Elvira, attacking the play of that name by David Mallet (?1701/03– 65). But AE’s later life, spent mostly at the home of his sister Elizabeth (by then Lady Colville) (for whom, see p. 86 n. 2) at Drumsheugh, sank into loneliness, unfulfilment and depression, and he died a suicide in late Sept. 1793, to JB’s deep distress (Corr. 10, pp. 274–83; Journ. 13, 24 Oct. 1793, Great Biographer, pp. 242, 245). JB, naming him in support (against SJ’s opinion) of his own high estimate of the poetry of Hamilton of Bangour, would pay public tribute to him in the Life of Johnson as ‘both a good poet and a good critick’ (16 Sept. 1777; Life, iii. 150).

on 2 June 1766: ‘unfortunately about a week ago I reciev’d most peremptory orders, without any delay to join my Regiment at Gibraltar’ (Corr. 1, pp. 218–19 and n. 10). The Auchinleck estate overseer, James Bruce, would write to JB on 23 Feb., in reply to a letter (not reported) from JB with news of AE’s reappearance: ‘I was Glad to hear Capt. Erskine was safely Arravied from the Straits’ (Corr. 8, pp. 14–15 and n. 1). JB had first met AE, at GD’s ‘suggestion, in May 1761 at Fort George on the peninsula of Ardersier in Scotland’s north, where [AE]’s regiment [the 71st Foot] was then stationed. With a letter of introduction from [GD], he sought him out while travelling on the northern judicial circuit with his father’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 365 n. 16). In Nov. 1762, AE informed JB that ‘he had not the least ambition to rise in the Army; that all his plan was to make twenty-four hours pass agreeably’ (Journ. 1 Nov. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 99). AE was also a poet and later (an unsuccessful) playwright, having contributed extensively to Donaldson’s Collection, Vol. I and Vol. II. JB had reported of himself that in his late teens the ‘charms of Poetry . . . enchanted me’, and that getting acquainted with AE ‘kept this turn alive’ (Journ. 11 Dec. 1762, LJ 1762–63, p. 38; see also Corr. 9, pp. 56–57 n. 2). JB had characterized him in 1762, when he was staying with AE and his sisters at Kellie, as ‘a tall black [i.e. dark] man with a great sagaciousness of countenance. He has an awkward bashfulness amongst strangers, but with his friends is easy and excellent company. He has a richness of imagination, a wildness of fancy, a strength of feeling, and a fluency of expression which render him a very fine poet. He has a great deal of humour and simplicity of manners. He has a turn for

Friday 16 January Breakfasted Presid[ent]’s well.1 Call’d Lady Betty.2 Well. Jo: Gordon[,]3 W Wilson S.[,]4 Grange5 dined most comfortable. At 6 after torment with jealousy went to Miss. She was gay. She declared no fear.6 You was torn with passion or as Rose7 used to say your gloom fixed on love as it’s object. You was quite serious[.] 85

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 85

27/02/23 6:13 PM

16 january 1767 [S]aid you was much obligd to her. She must not think you ungratefull: but really you could not be miserable alltogether. Therefore youd try to cease8 — Youd be her friend &c &c — But you again grew fond. Note came — twas open. Said she we can understand one another tho’ open & laughed — You said nothing but like Spaniard9 mus’d on the fire — murmuring between you — She woud not make you uneasy. Then shew me card. She did so freely. Twas from a poor woman you had got in to Infirmary10 — Bless me! She just tried my jealousy — you asked pardon for weakness. She smil’d as well she might.11 She and JB would remain lifelong friends, and he enjoyed later visits to her family and home, Drumsheugh (Colville’s home, over which she had a liferent by the terms of his will (Corr. 1, p. 260 and n. 5)). ‘I went out today to Lady Colville’s, and had a most agreeable walk with her Ladyship and Lady Anne [her sister, Lady Anne Erskine (1735–1802) (Scots Peer. v. 89)] and Captain Andrew before dinner . . . At Lady Colville’s I am always soothed, comforted, and cheered. The cares of life are taken off with a velvet brush’ (Journ. 25 June 1774, Defence, Heinemann p. 226, McGraw-Hill p. 215). But the family’s ‘satiric’ turn, and a sense that the Kellies had known him in his times of youthful insecurity, would remain a source of anxiety: ‘Breakfasted with Lady Colville . . . I always feel a kind of constraint in the company of the ladies of Kellie, knowing their satirical turn and having been with them in my early life while I was awkward and timid. But we have all along been on a good footing, and what is rare, they have been as well with me since my marriage as before, and have kept up a good intercourse with my wife’ (Journ. 12 Apr. 1780, Laird p. 198). Lady Betty, in her last known letter to JB (6 Feb. 1788, Yale MS. C 815), would declare her ‘unalterable friendship’ for him and his wife. 3. John Gordon (d. 1789) of Balmoor, W.S. (admitted 8 July 1763) (W.S. Register, p. 123). A particular friend of JJ’s (for whom, see n. 5 below), who would be one of the trustees under his will, and in Aug. 1786 would write to JB asking him also to be one of JJ’s trustees (Corr. 1, p. 41 and n. 5, p. 318.)

1. Lord President Dundas’s town house was in Adam’s Court, to the south of the Cowgate and immediately to the north of Adam Square (Williamson, front matter; Arniston Memoirs, p. 189). ‘His address was later given as being Adam Square, which suggests that his house was situated at the southern end of the Court adjoining the Square. The Court and the Square were displaced [in 1871] by the construction of Chambers Street and the buildings on the west side of the South Bridge’ (BEJ, p. 68 n. 55. See also Cassell’s Edinburgh, i. 380–81; Place Names of Edinburgh, pp. 51–52). 2. AE’s sister, Lady Elizabeth ‘Betty’ (Erskine) Macfarlane or MacFarlan (c. 1734–94), who in 1760 had married the antiquary Walter Macfarlane (or Macfarlan) (?1705–67) of Arrochar, 20th Laird of Macfarlane, who was some thirty years her senior (Corr. 9, p. 94 n. 26). Presumably, JB ‘Call’d’ on her at Macfarlane’s town house, which was in Reid’s Close in the Canongate (MacFarlane, p. 132; Oxford DNB). She would be widowed on 5 June of this year, and in Oct. 1768 would marry Admiral Alexander Colville (1717–70), 7th Lord Colville of Culross (Scots Peer. ii. 562–63) (and would be widowed again twenty months later). JB had described her in 1762 as ‘a woman of noble figure and majestic deportment, uncommon good sense and cleverness’ (Journ. 30 Oct. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 98). For JB’s sexual attraction towards her, see Corr. 9, pp. 85–86 n. 5. He later told her that he had once thought seriously of proposing marriage to her (Journ. 23 Nov. 1776; Extremes, p. 60).

86

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 86

27/02/23 6:13 PM

16 january 1767 suffer from fits of depression. They were also drawn to each other for other reasons in that they shared an enthusiasm for Scottish history and they both had an emotional attachment to the royal house of Stewart. [JB] was to have a great deal of contact with Johnston over the years and always recognised in him a kindred spirit’ (BEJ, p. 15; see also Corr. 1, pp. x–xxi). But in a letter to WJT, JB expressed the view that JJ was ‘too much of an indolent Philosopher to have great business, being rather a worthy Country Gentleman’ (To WJT, 30 Mar., Corr. 6, p. 181). In the 1770s and 1780s, JJ would live in the same building as the Boswells, James’s Court, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, and was ‘in effect a member of the household, a steady, mild, sometimes melancholy, much-valued companion. By custom he dined with the Boswells on Christmas Day’. In the mid-1780s, in ‘deteriorating health and with little to look forward to in his later years, he relied heavily on Boswell’s comfort and support’, and JB’s removal to London in 1786 would be ‘an irremediable stroke’ (Later Years, pp. 192, 341). 6. MS. ‘She declared no fear’ scored off with a modern pen. These words, which are particularly difficult to decipher, are as transcribed in BP, vii. 102. 7. James Rose (c. 1737–1800), a Scotsman whom JB knew well, and who had tutored him in Greek, while studying at Utrecht 1763–64. He ‘was the second son of James Rose of Brea [(1699–1762), and his wife Margaret Rose, daughter of James Rose of Broadley (Burke’s Peerage, 107th ed., iii. 3397; Addison, #1845, p. 57)], consequently [a] grandson of Hugh Rose, 15th of Kilravock, by his second marriage, and first cousin of Hugh Rose (1705–1772), 17th of Kilravock . . . Rose appears to have graduated M.A. from the University of Aberdeen before entering Glasgow (P. J. Anderson, Fasti Acedemiae Mariscallanae Aberdonensis, 1898, ii. 323)’ (Earlier Years, p. 492). Although the precise remark JB attributes to him here seems to make no appearance in his surviving writings, Rose appears

4. The ‘S’ after Wilson’s name probably stands for ‘Writer to the Signet’. In the Consultation Book an ‘S’ appears after the names of various agents who were all Writers to the Signet (LPJB 1, p. 369). See also entry for 14 Feb., and entry for 24 Feb. 1768. 5. JB’s closest Edinburgh friend, John Johnston (c. 1729–86), a writer in Edinburgh, who owned three farms in Annandale, Dumfriesshire, the largest of which, Grange, led him to be styled ‘Johnston of Grange’. Corr. 1 collects the surviving correspondence between him and JB. They (along with WJT) had first met as students at Edinburgh University, probably as ‘members of Robert Hunter’s Greek class of 1755–56’ (Corr. 1, p. x), and they would remain lifelong friends (for Hunter, see pp. 113–14 n. 1). JB described his character at the time of their first acquaintance as ‘male et cordial’ (‘masculine and hearty’) in a discarded part of the final draft of his ‘Ébauche de ma vie’ (Sketch of My Life), written in 1764 for Rousseau (Journ. 1, p. 366). AE, in a letter to JJ of 2 June 1766, referred to the ‘thickleg’d, broad-shoulder’d Johnston of Grange’ (Corr. 1, p. 217). JB had sent the original manuscript of his now famous London journal of 1762–63 to JJ in Edinburgh, usually in weekly instalments, and he had left to JJ an important part of the care of his illegitimate son Charles, whose mother was Peggy Doig. Charles was born in Edinburgh in Dec. 1762, soon after JB had set out for London (LJ 1762–63, p. 353 n. 4). While in Anhalt-Dessau, JB had formed the scheme of writing letters to JJ on his travels which he would not send, but would put ‘up in a Bundle’ to be read by both of them on his return to Scotland (To JJ, 1 Oct. 1764, Corr. 1, p. 135; for the series, numbered from 1 to 51, with the last being written from Auxerre on 9 Jan. 1766, see Corr. 1, pp. 135–207). JB’s ‘measure of respect for him can be gauged from the fact that he frequently refers to him in his journals as “worthy Grange” . . . In Johnston, [JB] found a fellow “hypochondriac”, for Johnston, like [JB], had a tendency to

87

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 87

27/02/23 6:13 PM

16 january 1767 9. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Spaniards were often portrayed in caricature by the British as haughty and proud (see, e.g., the letter by ‘Brutus’ in The North Briton, 8 Dec. 1770, No. 195, p. 591: ‘no power on earth, not the ambitious and enterprizing Frenchman, nor even the proud and haughty Spaniard, would have dared to seize any of our dominions’). Paul Johnson in The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815–1830, 1992, p. 99, has described the Spanish diplomat Pedro Labrador (1755– 1852) as ‘a caricature Spaniard who specialized in frantic rages [and] haughty silences’. 10. The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, standing on a site which is now on the south side of Infirmary Street. ‘This building, which was designed by William Adam and completed in about 1748, was demolished in the latter part of the nineteenth century’ (BEJ, p. 21; see also Thin, pp. 135–63, and Turner, pp. 82–90). No clue remains as to the identity of the ‘poor woman’, or of the circumstances in which JB ‘got’ her into the Infirmary. These details may have been recorded in the missing diary pages. 11. MS. ‘you asked pardon . . . she might’ scored off with a modern pen. Six pages, containing the record of 17 Jan. to 3 Feb. are missing at this point.

frequently in JB’s records of his time in Utrecht, from 1 Oct. 1763, to 6 Apr. 1764, when Rose departed for London, where GD, in a letter of 25 May 1764, had reported meeting him (Holland, Heinemann p. 263, McGraw-Hill p. 270). He was prone to attacks of gloominess (Mem. 24 Jan. 1764, Holland, Heinemann p. 123, McGraw-Hill p. 127). After his return to England, Rose would be ordained Deacon in the Church of England in May 1768, thereafter serving as Curate at Orsett, Essex, and ordained priest in Sept. 1769, and would serve as Rector at Walton on Trent, Derbyshire, from 1791 until his death (CCED). He and JB seem not to have remained in touch, until, on 24 Mar. 1794, JB would report in his journal a ‘curious and pleasing party’ at his home in London, which reunited him with Rose and two other members of the ‘société littéraire’ he had formed when in Utrecht (Great Biographer, pp. 295–96 and n. 7). The two other former members were Charles de Guiffardière (for whom, see pp. 313–14 n. 10) and a German, Johann Christoph Wilhelm von Rham (1733–1812) (Journ. 1, p. 280 n. 3). 8. MS. ‘youd try to cease’ scored off with a modern pen. The word ‘cease’, which is particularly difficult to decipher, is as transcribed in BP, vii. 102.

Wednesday 4 February Was hurt to find soul ravaged by Passion — determined to be firm — saw it hurt ideas of Family. Din’d Capt. Cunningham’s — Father, Balmuto[,]1 Miss Henry Ker2 &c — Had Mrs. Campbell your Client who had been with you on Saturday3 — She drank tea with you. Quite Counsellor at law. Had been looking at houses for Miss ––––[.] [A]t last fell on one in Borthwic’s Close4 quite neat & light.5 Charles Kerr was the second son of Robert Kerr (or Ker) (1636–1703), 4th Earl and 1st Marquis of Lothian, and Lady Jean Campbell (d. 1700). Janet Murray was the eldest daughter of Sir David Murray of Stanhope (d. 1729), Bt., and his first wife, Lady Anne Bruce (d. before 1714), the second

1. Claud Boswell. 2. Henrietta Anne Kerr (1718–94), who died unmarried, was the youngest daughter of Lord Charles Kerr (d. 1735), of Cramond, Director of the Chancery, and his wife, Janet Murray (d. 1755). She and JB were very distantly related. Lord

88

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 88

27/02/23 6:13 PM

5 february 1767 case, this time to draft a Representation (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, p. 375). 4. Borthwick’s Close, off the south side of the High Street, a short distance to the east of Parliament Close, where JB lived in Lord Auchinleck’s house. 5. JB had explained the position with regard to Mrs. Dodds in a letter to WJT: ‘I beleive She loves me sincerely. She has done every thing to please me. She is perfectly generous, & would not hear of any present. She has hitherto been boarded here which lays us under a restraint. I have found out a sober widow in whose house is the rendezvous of our Amours. But I have now prevailed with my love to let me take a house for her, and as it will be my Family I shall provide what is necessary. In this manner I am safe & happy & in no danger either of the perils of Venus [i.e. the risk of venereal infection from prostitutes] or of desperate Matrimony’ (To WJT, 1 Feb.–8 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 165).

daughter of Alexander Bruce (c. 1629–80), 2nd Earl of Kincardine, and his Dutch countess, Veronica van Aerssen van Sommelsdyck (1633–1701 (Journ. 1, index, p. 401)) (Douglas’s Peerage, ii. 138–39; Scots Peer. iii. 486–87, v. 475–78; Comp. Bar. iii. 342; Comp. Peer. viii. 149–51). Lady Anne Bruce’s younger sister, the Earl’s third daughter, was JB’s paternal grandmother, Lady Elizabeth Bruce (d. 1734 (Journ. 1, index, p. 401)), who married James Boswell, 7th Laird of Auchinleck, on 26 Mar. 1704 (Scots Peer. iii. 487; Ominous Years, Chart III, p. 376). 3. The previous Saturday was 31 Jan. On that day, JB received instructions (probably to draft a Memorial) in the case of Campbell v. Houston, which was before Lord Auchinleck (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, p. 373). JB’s client ‘Mrs. Campbell’ may have been the pursuer. No papers relating to that action have been traced. On 26 Feb., JB would receive further instructions in that

Thursday 5 February Mr. & Mrs. Tait[,]1 Grange[,] Redcastle[,]2 &c din’d — In morning went to Mrs. Leith3 & took house — mind at ease — determined to be generous — & let Miss –––– do as she pleased. Very busy all day. Tea Lord Hales.4 Going to write noble letter to Miss ––––[.] [S]ent for by her — went — She tender as ever — quite affectionate — Saw all was easy. You felt too much like married man but ’twas gay — Then at 9 Clerihue’s with Mr. W Wilson & Bryce[,]5 Client. Saw form of fleecing poor Lieges6 — Hurt tant soit peu7 — Firm again. wife, Charles Murdoch, . . . Tait had family connections with members of the Boswell family’ (Corr. 5, p. 138 n. 1). Tait and JB thus had several points of social and professional overlap. A letter to GD of 23 Feb. 1769 would report in detail on a supper JB attended with other company ‘at John Tait’s’ (Corr. 7, pp. 140–41), and on 18 Nov. 1774 JB would record that ‘Matthew Dickie and I drank tea at John Tait’s and talked over a submission between Lord Dumfries and Hugh Mitchell in Craigman’ (Ominous Years, p. 40). On 8 Feb. 1777, JB

1. John Tait (1727–1800), W.S. (admitted 8 Mar. 1763), who later (c. 1780) purchased Harvieston, Clackmannanshire, and his wife, Charles (Murdoch) (d. 1784), eldest daughter of Thomas Murdoch of Cumloden, Kirkcudbrightshire, and Elizabeth Cochrane, who was ‘a first cousin to Boswell’s [maternal] grandmother’ (Extremes, p. 85 n. 3; Fallow, pp. 53, 86; BRB, i. 95–96; W.S. Register, p. 315; Scots Mag. Mar. 1800, lxii. 215). Tait ‘often employed JB as the advocate to plead his causes in court . . . Through his

89

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 89

27/02/23 6:13 PM

5 february 1767 Session (as Lord Hailes) 6 Mar. 1766, later Lord Commissioner of Justiciary 3 May 1776 (Fac. Adv., p. 49; College of Justice, pp. 529–30). He was a ‘man of letters and an antiquarian scholar’ (LPJB 1, p. 386). Very unusually for a Scotsman of this time, he was educated at Eton, where he acquired ‘that predilection for English modes and manners which marked his conduct and conversation in the after-part of life’ (Ramsay, i. 394). In 1751, he succeeded to the estate of New Hailes (or Newhailes), near Inveresk and Musselburgh, overlooking the Firth of Forth. ‘At New Hailes he fitted up a magnificent library, and having no fondness for the boisterous tavern company so much enjoyed by most of his legal brethren, he liked nothing more than to lead a quiet, studious life’ (BEJ, p. 17). ‘[A]lthough regarded as honest and diligent and having a “concise, elegant, perspicuous style of speaking”, he did not make a very great reputation for himself at the bar, for his “weak ill-tuned voice and ungraceful elocution” prevented him from excelling as an orator; and it was alleged that he “did not sufficiently concentrate his ideas or direct his arguments to the essential points at issue”. His written pleadings, on the other hand, were highly praised’ (ibid., quoting from Ramsay, i. 395 and 397). JB had formed an admiring affection for him in his late teens. On 29 July 1758, he wrote to WJT that ‘my Father . . . has been so kind as to promise to take me the north circuit with him . . . You must know I am vastly happy with the thoughts of the north circuit; My Worthy Mecaenas [sic] Sir David Dalrymple goes as Advocate Depute; there, I will enjoy the happiness of his agreable and improving conversation, & see the country with a double relish, in such refined company’ (Corr. 6, pp. 6–7). What ‘especially charmed’ the young JB was Dalrymple’s ‘achievement in belles-lettres. He . . . had contributed papers to The Gentleman’s Magazine and The World, and was a correspondent of Horace Walpole’ (Earlier Years, p. 36). He was a friend to both JB and Lord Auchinleck, and on occasion acted

and his wife would dine with others ‘at Mr. John Tait’s . . . This was a visit to keep up connexion with Mrs. Tait, our relation, and her husband, an agent’ (Extremes, p. 85). One of Charles Murdoch’s sisters, Euphemia Murdoch, married James Chalmers (for whom, see p. 158 n. 7), originally of Fingland (in Kirkcudbrightshire), which he was obliged to sell (Fallow, p. 87; BRB, i. 96). He had accompanied JB on part of his harvest jaunt in 1762, and was an Auchinleck tenant, leasing the Braehead farm (in Mauchline parish, in the Kyle district of Ayrshire) from JB’s father, at which after his death JB would allow his widow to continue to reside for a year (Corr. 7, p. 105 n. 5; Corr. 8, p. 69 n. 5, pp. 81–82 and n. 3, p. 222). This transaction would involve correspondence between JB and Tait (Yale MS. L 1208, 13 Jan. 1784, and 1208.1, 10 Feb. 1784; Yale MS. C 2637, 13 Jan. 1784, and 2637.1, 31 Jan. 1784), in which Tait himself offered to take a nineteen-year lease of Braehead for Mrs. Chalmers (which offer JB declined). Another sister, Hannah Murdoch (d. 1755), had married Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle (for whom, see following note) (Fallow, p. 87). (Corr. 5, p. 138 n. 1, states in error that Tait’s sister was the wife of Mackenzie of Redcastle.) 2. Roderick Mackenzie (d. 1785), 7th of Redcastle (‘an ancient . . . mansion in Killearnan parish, Ross-shire, on the N[orth] shore of Beauly Firth’ (OGS, vi. 241)), brother-in-law of John Tait (for whom, see preceding note). JB would act for Redcastle in the case of Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Gairloch v. Hector Mackenzie, younger, of Gairloch, and Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle (for which, see pp. 156–57 n. 1). 3. Williamson, p. 44, lists (under ‘Ladies and Gentlewomen’) a Mrs. Leith, Advocate’s Close. It seems that JB probably never took the house in Borthwick’s Close mentioned in the entry for 4 Feb. (see p. 129 n. 1). 4. MS. ‘Tea Lord Hales’ interlined. Sir David Dalrymple (1726–92), Bt., admitted advocate 24 Feb. 1748, appointed Lord of

90

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 90

27/02/23 6:13 PM

5 february 1767 Kilkerran 7 Nov. 1735 and Lord Commissioner of Justiciary 3 Apr. 1749 (Fac. Adv., p. 70; College of Justice, pp. 505–06; Sedgwick, ii. 30; Oxford DNB). Dalrymple was appointed Lord of Session at the age of thirty-nine and was the youngest judge on the bench when JB was called to the Bar. ‘His early rise to the bench reflected the high regard in which he was held for his legal acumen. It was said of him that “his skill and assiduity in sifting dark matters to the bottom were well known”, but at the same time he was perceived as paying unwarranted attention to minutiae; indeed, “his plaguing the lawyers and agents with needless scruples and inquiries made them sometimes regard him as a trifler” [Ramsay, i. 397–98]’ (BEJ, p. 562. See also Ramsay, i. 393–415; Walker, SJ, pp. 267–72; Oxford DNB; Graham, SML, pp. 198–202). His main historical work, the Annals of Scotland, would be published in two volumes in 1776 and 1779. In these volumes ‘early sources of Scottish history were examined and sifted with admirable acuteness and impartiality, and a connected narration was woven out of disputed documents. Many a venerable story and cherished tradition were demolished or banished to mythland . . . The Annals are dry, deplorably dry; but invaluable still for facts – a quarry in which later writers have dug for material out of which to build more artistic works’ (Graham, SML, p. 201).   JB’s relationship with Hailes would unfortunately sour in 1771, when JB, hosting the visit to Scotland by Paoli, would become aggrieved that the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, John Dalrymple (1734–79) (LPE, p. 74; Scots Mag. 1779, xli. 455), Hailes’s brother, ‘failed to entertain or confer the freedom of the city on its distinguished visitor. Taking what must have been simple inadvertence as a conscious slight’, JB published two anonymous letters in the Lond. Chron. (24 Oct. and 28 Nov. 1771) with offensive and unpleasant characterizations of him (Later Years, p. 25). Hailes wrote to JB in Dec. 1771 asking if he

as a mediator between them (Earlier Years, pp. 109, 300). In Mar. 1762, Lord Auchinleck, deeply displeased with JB’s conduct, had asked Dalrymple (‘for whom he knew Boswell had the greatest respect’) to be one of the two witnesses to the document he had drawn up allowing him to vest the Auchinleck estate in trustees after his death, if he chose to do so (Earlier Years, pp. 80–81). It was Dalrymple who had suggested Utrecht, where he himself had studied, as the place for JB’s law study in Holland, imagining that JB would find it more congenial than Leiden, ‘as it was reputed to have a livelier social life’ (BEJ, p. 30). On 10 Feb. 1763, JB had noted in his journal that ‘Before I left Scotland, I had a long conversation with Sir David Dalrymple on my future schemes of life. Sir David is a man of great ingenuity, a fine Scholar, an accurate Critic, and a worthy member of Society. From my early years I used to regard him with admiration and awe . . . Since I came to London I have found his name much respected in the literary World. He is also a great freind of my father’s’ (LJ 1762–63, pp. 138–39). JB therefore determined to write to Dalrymple, to solicit his correspondence and his guidance. He promptly received ‘a very cordial answer’, which ‘gave me much satisfaction, and a good opinion of myself, to find that a man of so much true worth and even Piety had my interest at heart, and was willing to keep a corespondence with me’ (Journ. 15 Feb. 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 141). Dalrymple would also win the admiration of SJ, who would read his Annals of Scotland before its publication (Life ii. 279, 383, 412).  In 1763, Dalrymple had married Anne Brown (d. 1768), daughter of Lord Coalston (for whom, see p. 130 n. 1); and in 1770 would marry, as his second wife, Helen Fergusson (d. 1810), daughter of Sir James Fergusson (1688–1759), Bt., of Kilkerran (in Ayrshire), and Jean Maitland (1703–66). Sir James had been admitted advocate 20 Feb. 1711, M.P. Sutherland 1734–35, appointed Lord of Session as Lord

91

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 91

27/02/23 6:13 PM

5 february 1767 p. 35), but although this visit would restore ‘casual contact and Hailes and Boswell continued to correspond, they seldom met’ (Later Years, p. 25). 5. Gavin Bryce (c. 1711–75 (OPRDB)), merchant in Glasgow, admitted burgess and guild brother of Glasgow 19 Feb. 1736 (BGBG, p. 420). He was the husband of Lilias Thomson, whom he had married in 1733 in Carmunnock (OPRBM), and for whom JB acted in the case of Hugh Kerr v. Margaret and Lilias Thomson (for which, see pp. 164–66 n. 4). On this day Wilson instructed JB to draft a Memorial in that case (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, pp. 44, 373). The Memorial (undated), extending to seven pages in the handwriting of an unidentified clerk (NRS CS228/K/2/19), is transcribed, in part, in LPJB 1, pp. 45–47. 6. That is, JB saw law as being a form of fleecing poor lieges. 7. Tant soit peu: ever so little.

had written the letters. ‘JB failed to reply, and their relationship became considerably strained’ (Corr. 3, p. 35 n. 4). Hailes endorsed his copy of his letter, ‘He visited me no longer’ (Later Years, pp. 25, 504). But Hailes would be among the Edinburgh friends to whom JB introduced SJ before and after their tour to the Highlands and Hebrides. Of a dinner at his home (17 Aug. 1773, Hebrides, p. 30) JB wrote that ‘Lord Hailes, who is one of the best philologists in Great Britain, who has written papers in the World, and a variety of other works in prose and in verse, both Latin and English, pleased him highly’, and wrote of a later visit (in Nov. 1773) that ‘At Lord Hailes’s, we spent a most agreeable day’ (probably at his town house in New Street (Hebrides, pp. 388, 486)). JB wrote to Bennet Langton on 4 Nov. 1773 that ‘Lord Hailes and I have met again on friendly terms on occasion of Mr. Johnson’s coming to Scotland’ (Corr. 3,

Friday 6 February Close employed. Pleaded Cubbieson1 against Balmuto[,] Sollicitor[,]2 McQueen3 — Lord Gardenston4 said You have pleaded &c very well. NRS CS74/18, 22 Jan., 7 Feb., 26 June, 26 Nov. and 12 Dec. 1767).   It is not known what deed the pursuer sought to have reduced, but reports of later proceedings between different parties, decided by the Inner House of the Court of Session in 1837, contain some background information. The reports indicate that in the proceedings in which JB acted in 1767, the pursuer, David Cubbison (as the name more commonly appears) (d. 1769), and the defender, John Cubbison (1740 (OPRBB)–1817), were in fact both sons of John Cubbison of Blackcraig (a farm in New Cumnock parish, in the Kyle district of Ayrshire (Ayrshire, p. 322)), David being the elder son. John Cubbison, senior, was the proprietor of the lands of Banks and others (including Blackcraig) in Ayrshire.

1. The case of David Cubbieson of Blackcraig v. John Cubbieson, in which JB represented the pursuer. John Cubbieson was referred to as lawful son of the deceased John Cubbieson of Blackcraig. The action was for reduction and improbation. The hearing on 6 Feb. was in relation to an application by the defender for letters of incident diligence against havers. The Consultation Book indicates that on 5 Feb. JB had received instructions to attend that hearing (LPJB 1, p. 373). On 7 Feb., Lord Gardenstone granted an act and warrant for the letters sought. On 26 June, he would grant decree of absolvitor. He would again grant decree of absolvitor upon a refused Representation on 26 Nov. and refused a further Representation on 12 Dec. (Court of Session Minute Book (Potts Office),

92

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 92

27/02/23 6:13 PM

6 february 1767 from 1775 to 1785, Treasurer of the Navy from 1782 to Apr. 1783 and Dec. 1783 to 1800, Home Secretary from 1791 to 1794, Secretary of State for War from 1794 to 1801, and Lord of the Admiralty from 1804 to 1805, and was created Viscount Melville in 1802. As an advocate, it was said of him that he entered ‘so warmly into the interest of his client as totally to forget himself, and to adopt all the feelings, sentiments, and interests of his employer’ (Carlyle, p. 468). In 1766, after Dundas’s appointment as Solicitor-General, JB, who had been at Edinburgh University with him, greeted the news with some incredulity. Writing to WJT, JB remarked: ‘Do you remember what you & I used to think of Dundas? He has been making £700 a year as an Advocate, has married a very genteel Girl with £10,000 fortune, and is now appointed His Majesty’s Sollicitor General for Scotland’ (To WJT, 17 May 1766, Corr. 6, p. 150). On 16 Aug. 1765 Dundas had ‘married Elizabeth (1751–1843), coheir of David Rannie (1712–1764), merchant and shipbuilder. She had a fortune of £10,000 but Dundas squandered it on investment in the Ayr Bank, which crashed in 1772. They inherited Rannie’s seat of Melville Castle, Edinburghshire’ (Oxford DNB). JB and WJT had considered Dundas ‘much our inferior’ (Journ. 9 Sept. 1792, Great Biographer, p. 180). When Dundas was appointed Lord Advocate, JB, while admitting that Dundas had ‘strong parts’, would refer to him as ‘a coarse, unlettered, unfanciful dog’ (To WJT, 22 May 1775, Corr. 6, p. 375). See also BEJ, pp. 562–63; Fac. Adv., p. 62; Omond, ii. 83–162; Namier and Brooke, ii. 354–57; and Fry, pp. 20ff. In 1785, JB would alienate Dundas by publishing a pamphlet entitled Letter to the People of Scotland, in which he expressed opposition to a parliamentary bill of Dundas’s seeking to reduce the number of judges in the Court of Session from fifteen to ten. This would have the unfortunate consequence that when JB applied to Dundas in 1786 for appointment as a Lord of Session (Later Years,

He had become considerably in debt, and his son John Cubbison, junior, was liable along with him. On 16 Mar. 1765, he had granted a disposition of the lands of Banks and others to John Cubbison, junior. The disposition stated that it was granted in security and relief of the debts, and in security of a provision to John Cubbison, junior. John Cubbison, senior, died on 17 May 1766. David Cubbison would pay the debts and the provision on 12 Jan. 1769, and on the same day John Cubbison, junior, would grant a disposition of the lands to David, who died only a few days later, on 22 Jan. 1769 (Margaret Cubbison v. William Hyslop, reported in Session Cases: Cases decided in the Court of Session from Nov. 14 1837, to July 11, 1838, reported by Alexander Dunlop, J. M. Bell and John Murray, Vol. 16, 1838, pp. 112–21; see also Poor Margaret Cubbison v. William Hislop, reported in Scottish Jurist: Reports of Cases decided in the Supreme Courts of Scotland, and in the House of Lords on Appeal from Scotland, Vol. 10, 1838, pp. 97–100).   JB’s involvement in the matter seems to have continued in some way. Reg. Let. contains a note of receipt of a letter (not reported), on 19 June 1778, from ‘Mrs. Cubbison of Blackcraig desiring to have a little more out of her son’s Estate’. She was Mary Crawford, mother of John Cubbison, junior (OPRBB). 2. That is, the Solicitor-General for Scotland, Henry Dundas (1742–1811), halfbrother of the Lord President of the Court of Session, Robert Dundas of Arniston. In the course of his later career, he would rise to immense political power, essentially serving as the government’s Scottish political manager, earning him such sobriquets as ‘Harry the Ninth’. He had been admitted advocate on 1 Mar. 1763 and was appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland in 1766 (at the age of only twenty-four). He was later elected M.P. for Edinburghshire (Midlothian) in 1774, served as Lord Advocate from 1775 to 1783 and from Dec. 1783 to 1800, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates

93

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 93

27/02/23 6:13 PM

6 february 1767 lar notoriety for insensitive conduct after being elevated to the bench . . . However, it seems that within his immediate circle of friends, family and colleagues he was always much liked’ (BEJ, p. 560. See also Ramsay, i. 380–93; and Osborne). When he succeeded Lord Auchineck in the Court of Justiciary, JB would seize ‘the occasion to write [anonymously] A Letter to Lord Braxfield, a pamphlet [begun on 21 Apr. and published on 8 May 1780] inculcating decorum and humanity, deprecating the judges’ attempts to overawe juries, and insisting in particular that on their twice-yearly circuits the judges should spend the ample allowances given them as representatives of the Crown to maintain proper state and to provide suitable entertainment for the gentry who paid their respects’ (Later Years, p. 196; see also BEJ, p. 387 n. 63). 4. Francis Garden (1721–93), Lord Gardenstone, who was admitted advocate on 14 July 1744, appointed sheriff-depute of Kincardineshire in 1748, conjunct SolicitorGeneral for Scotland in 1760, Lord of Session on 3 July 1764 and later Lord Commissioner of Justiciary in 1776 (College of Justice, pp. 527–28). Lord Gardenstone always seemed to manage to make himself popular with everyone. ‘His talents for convivial intercourse were confessed on all hands to be truly fascinating; for whatever turn the conversation took – whether grave or gay, serious or frolicsome – he displayed the same strength, openness, and ardour of mind which distinguished him as a pleader’ (Ramsay, i. 373). He was noted for two particular eccentricities: a predilection for pigs and an excessive fondness for snuff. As to his affection for pigs, we are told that ‘he took a young pig as a pet, and it became quite tame and followed him about like a dog. At first the animal shared his bed, but when, growing up to advanced swinehood, it became unfit for such companionship, he had it to sleep in his room, in which he made a comfortable couch for it of his own clothes’ (Reminiscences, p. 175. See also BEJ, pp. 558–59; Ramsay, i. 369–80; and Oxford DNB).

pp. 338–39), Dundas would merely reply that, while ‘he had “not the least disposition to depreciate” [JB]’s political services, he could not admit . . . “that political merit of any kind is the proper road to judicial preferment.” And he added that though he did not regret [JB]’s Letter on his own account, he certainly did on Boswell’s’ (ibid., pp. 343–44). 3. Robert McQueen (1722–99), who was admitted advocate on 14 Feb. 1744, appointed joint sheriff-substitute for the Ward of Lanarkshire in 1745, and served as Advocate-Depute from 1759 to 1760. He was later appointed Lord of Session (as Lord Braxfield) on 13 Dec. 1776, Lord Commissioner of Justiciary on 1 Mar. 1780 (succeeding JB’s father, Lord Auchinleck, whose ill-health forced him to resign his Justiciary gown), and Lord Justice-Clerk on 15 Jan. 1788 (LPJB 1, p. 389; Fac. Adv., p. 142; College of Justice, pp. 534–35). As an advocate, he came to acquire what was considered to be the largest and hence most remunerative practice at the Bar, regularly pleading from fifteen to twenty causes a day in the Outer House. He told JB in 1776 that his income from the law was ‘near £2,000 a year’ (Journ. 22 Nov. 1776, Extremes, p. 59), which was considerably above a Lord of Session’s salary of £700 per annum (LPJB 1, p. xlix and p. 389). While McQueen was ‘without doubt a legal giant of his time, his conduct and expressions were undeniably crude and he was considered by persons of a more sensitive disposition, such as Cockburn, to be “illiterate and without any taste for refined enjoyment” [Cockburn, p. 105]. Moreover, he was a furious imbiber and never hesitated to speak his mind in the most forthright terms. Cockburn gives us a vivid impression of him: “Strong built and dark, with rough eyebrows, powerful eyes, threatening lips, and a low growling voice, he was like a formidable blacksmith. His accent and his dialect were exaggerated Scotch; his language, like his thoughts, short, strong, and conclusive” [ibid., p. 104]. He was to acquire particu-

94

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 94

27/02/23 6:13 PM

7 february 1767

Saturday 7 February With honest Doctor1 & a Doctor Livingston2 walked out to Sir Alexr’s.3 Fine day. Was powerfull like Johnson — very much satisfyed — Evening with Miss ––––. She had taken other house. So resolved to give up yours. A little gloom still — a little fever. evidently taken to ‘going to bawdy-houses and talking as if the Christian religion had not prescribed any fixed rule for intercourse between the sexes’ (Journ. 23 Mar. 1776, Ominous Years, p. 293). Indeed, he would later be excommunicated by his church after contritely confessing to whoring (Journ. 10 Apr. 1777, Extremes, p. 110). JB reported in his diary entry for 28 Jan. 1776 in Edinburgh that his uncle ‘showed symptoms of that unquiet temperament which is in our blood. But he and I were warmly affectionate’, and they had a frank exchange about Lord Auchinleck: ‘He and I joined in regretting my father’s coldness, which deprived him of the great happiness of social intercourse and having his sons easy with him . . . The Doctor said my father had from his youth been set on wealth and on his own personal consequence’ (Ominous Years, p. 225). JB visited his father the day after Dr. Boswell died, and reported that Lord Auchinleck ‘did not seem to be much affected with his brother’s death’ (16 May 1780, Laird, p. 214). 2. Thomas Livingston (1728–85), eminent Aberdeen physician. M.D. (Marischal College) and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (Un. Sc. Alm. 1767, p. 58). He would serve for some thirty-two years as chief physician at the Aberdeen Infirmary, which had been established at Woolmanhill in 1739, admitting its first patients in 1742. It would be granted a Royal Charter in 1773, and would be known as Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (The Medical Register for the Year 1783, pp. 129, 136, 143; New Stat. Acct. Scot., xii. 87; Historic Hospitals website, ). Born at Old Deer, Aberdeenshire, son of Rev. William

1. JB’s uncle, John Boswell (1710–80), M.D., one of Lord Auchinleck’s younger twin brothers (the other being James (for whom, see pp. 177–78 n. 1). Dr. Boswell, of whom his nephew was very fond (referring to him as ‘a worthy affectionate man, a good physician, an agreeable companion and a great virtuoso’ (Journ. 26 Oct. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 95)), was a physician in Edinburgh. He had taken his M.D. at Leiden in 1736, and would serve as President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1770 to 1772. ‘The close now called Boswell’s Court, off the south side of the Castle Hill, was so named on account of the fact that he resided there’ (BEJ, p. 47 n. 21). In 1742 he married Anne (or Anna) Cramond (for whom, see p. 141 n. 3). He was a collector of coins ‘and had a substantial collection of precious stones, shells, and other curiosities. JB wrote to JJ: “he is a great Virtuoso. His collection of Shells and Pebbles will amuse you greatly” (20 July 1763, Corr. 1, p. 93); Dr. Boswell showed “his curious museum” to SJ in Edinburgh in Nov. 1773 (Hebrides, p. 385) . . . Dr. Boswell was an enthusiastic Scots freemason’ (Corr. 9, p. 78 n. 6), and had joined Canongate Kilwinning Lodge No. 2 in 1742, and was Depute Master of the lodge when JB, aged eighteen, was initiated, on 14 Aug. 1759 (Corr. 10, p. lxxi and n. 28)). He would cease to practise as a physician by Mar. 1776 and it appears that this was occasioned by ‘his whimsical change of religion [which] had made people distrustful of him as a physician’ (Journ. 23 Mar. 1776, Ominous Years, p. 292). He ‘forsook the Kirk for the more “primitive” society of the Glassites [and] preached the extreme doctrine of salvation by faith’ (Earlier Years, p. 21). He had also

95

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 95

27/02/23 6:13 PM

7 february 1767 of an Italian in pleasantness of Disposition has a fine seat just a mile from town’ (22 June 1767, Corr. 6, p. 190). JB was acting for Sir Alexander in connection with his action against James Hamilton (1712–89), 8th Earl of Abercorn, concerning ‘a dispute as to the ownership of the soil at Duddingston Loch adjacent to Sir Alexander’s land at Prestonfield. Sir Alexander had title to the loch, while [the Earl] owned the land at Duddingston and had the right of watering his cattle at the loch. The Earl . . . maintained that he had title to the soil of the loch and that Sir Alexander’s right was solely in respect of the water’ (LPJB 1, p. 18). There had been a hearing before Lord Gardenstone on or about 5 Feb., which JB had attended (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, p. 18 and p. 373), and on 24 Feb. JB would draft a rather tongue-incheek Memorial for Sir Alexander, extending to nineteen pages in the handwriting of an unidentified clerk (NRS CS226/2729), transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 18–25. Lord Gardenstone would pronounce an interlocutor on 21 June 1768 finding that Sir Alexander had the sole and exclusive right to the loch, including the soil, and that the Earl and his tenants had no right or interest in the loch except the right of watering their horses and cattle in it (Morison’s Dictionary, 12813–17, at pp. 12813–14; Corr. 7, p. 69 n. 1). Sir Alexander was delighted with the news. ‘Twenty postillions Sounding their horns’, he wrote to JB, ‘could not give more Joy after a Battle to the Victors in Germany than your most acceptable Letter’ (From Sir Alexander Dick, c. 21 June 1768, Corr. 7, p. 69). On 17 Feb. 1769 (at which stage it seems that JB was not instructed in the case), the Inner House of the Court of Session would pronounce an interlocutor finding that, while Sir Alexander had the sole and exclusive right of property to the loch, including the soil, the Earl had a right of servitude to water his and his tenants’ cattle in the loch and also to the use of water from it for his mill and coalengine (Morison’s Dictionary, 12813–17,

Livingston (1690–1751), Episcopal minister, and his wife, Lilias Robertson (Bertie, p. 82), he studied at Marischal College, then ‘attended the medical professors of Edinburgh; and was by them appointed secretary to the Royal Infirmary’. He afterwards studied in France, then returned to Aberdeen, where he began practice in 1752. The next year he married his cousin, Mary Robertson (c. 1735–1816 ()) of Downiehills, with whom he had seven children. ‘Before he left Edinburgh, the Magistrates of Aberdeen had elected him physician to their Infirmary . . . This office he held till his death: and acquitted himself in it, with the highest credit to himself, and the most substantial benefit to that excellent institution, and to the whole country’. He developed a particular specialism in lithotomy – ‘cutting for the stone’ – but was equally eminent in ‘physic, surgery, and midwifery’, and on the death in 1783 (Journ. 5 Feb. 1783, Applause, p. 57) of Dr. Thomas Young, Professor of Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh (obstetrician to JB’s wife, Margaret, at least three of whose children he delivered (Applause, p. 5 n. 3)), he was offered the position, but declined it, preferring to continue his practice in Aberdeen (Westminster Magazine, June 1785, pp. 298–301). 3. Sir Alexander Dick (1703–85), Bt., M.D. (Leiden, 1725; St. Andrews, 1727), a retired physician and former President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (1756–63), who resided at the mansion of Prestonfield, near Edinburgh, to the south of Arthur’s Seat. ‘[F]or many years he was a manager of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, where he helped forward the foundation of a medical school. He was renowned for “a kind and amiable character” [SBD], and his friendship was greatly appreciated by [JB], who was to spend much time as a guest at Prestonfield’ (BEJ, p. 39; see also Oxford DNB). In a letter to WJT later this year, JB would write: ‘Sir Alexander Dick . . . quite a Classical man, & much

96

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 96

27/02/23 6:13 PM

8 february 1767 Loch, a thought which must have been told him, for my paper was never before the Inner House” [Journ. 24 Apr. 1780, Laird, pp. 204–05]’ (LPJB 1, p. 25).   JB would pay public tribute to Dick in Hebrides. He was among dinner guests at the Boswells’ Edinburgh home (17 Aug. 1773) meeting SJ. ‘[W]e had Sir Alexander Dick,’ wrote JB, ‘whose amiable character and ingenious and cultivated mind are so generally known (he was then on the verge of seventy, and is now – 1785 – eighty-one, with his faculties entire, his heart warm, and his temper gay)’ (Hebrides, p. 30). After the tour, SJ dined by invitation at Dick’s home, Prestonfield House (Hebrides, p. 385), and SJ would send Dick a copy of his own Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (Life iii. 102–03).   From about late 1776, JB would conduct interviews with Dick, and collect materials with Dick’s co-operation, with a view to writing his biography, but the project did not advance and was never completed (see Corr. 10, p. 37 n. 5).

at p. 12816). A further interlocutor, with regard to the boundaries of the loch, would be pronounced on 13 July 1769 (ibid., p. 12817), and JB would be instructed to draft Answers to the Earl’s reclaiming petition against that interlocutor. On 12 Sept. 1769, JB would write to Sir Alexander from London stating: ‘Be in no concern about your paper in answer to the potent Peer. I am now calm and quiet, and shall have it down with you by the 4th or 5th of October’ (Corr. 7, p. 233). At the final hearing of the case, on 16 Nov. 1769, at which JB was present and took notes, the court would adhere to its interlocutor of 13 July (Morison’s Dictionary, pp. 12813 and 12817; Yale MS. Lg 5.5, pp. 45–53). ‘It seems that the amusing language of [JB]’s Memorial [of 24 Feb. 1767] caused something of a stir – for, many years later, while at dinner at Arniston, the matter was raised by Lord President Dundas, who, writes [JB], “repeated a lively thought of mine in a paper for Sir Alexander Dick about Lord Abercorn’s horse being in quest of prescription in Duddingston

Sunday 8 February Lord Kinnoul1 said He had heard from Sollicitor2 of your masterly Reply.3 Din’d Lady Betty’s. Lord Kelly4 & Sir James Stewart5 there. All in state. Sir James most lively — full of expression. You got my Lord & Mathew Henderson6 to stay & take tother Bottle. You are quite a Socrates in disposition7 — Was a little warm — Stayed supper quiet — Trio with Lady Betty & Captain Andrew.8 She said You was now become quite natural and easy. the most distinguished and able men of the day’ and was ‘well known both in literary and political circles’ (Scots Peer. v. 234; see also Namier and Brooke, ii. 600). 2. That is, the Solicitor-General, Henry Dundas. 3. The ‘masterly reply’ was presumably at the hearing before Lord Gardenstone on 6 Feb. in the case of David Cubbieson of Blackcraig v. John Cubbieson (for which, see pp. 92–93 n. 1). That is the only case at about that time in which the Solicitor-General is

1. Thomas Hay (1710–87), M.P. Scarborough 1736, M.P. Cambridge 1741–58, Commissioner of Revenue in Ireland 1741– 46, Lord of Trade 1746–54, Lord of Treasury 1754–55, Joint Paymaster General 1755– 57, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1758–62, Privy Councillor 1758, succeeded as 9th Earl of Kinnoull 1758, Recorder of Cambridge 1758 till death, ambassador to Portugal 1759–62, retired from public life in 1762, Chancellor of the University of St. Andrews 1765 till death. ‘He was among

97

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 97

27/02/23 6:13 PM

8 february 1767 5. Sir James Denham Stewart (or Steuart) (1713–80), Bt., of Coltness (an estate in Lanarkshire), advocate (admitted 18 Feb. 1735), attainted in 1746 for supporting the Jacobite rising of 1745 but pardoned in 1771, author of An Inquiry Into the Principles of Political Economy (1767) (Comp. Bar. vi. 377; Fac. Adv., p. 199). 6. ‘Matthew Henderson (1737–88), of Tannochside, Lanarkshire, antiquary and bon-vivant, counted both JB and Robert Burns among his friends’ (Corr. 9, p. 246 n. 41). ‘In his youth he had served as a lieutenant in the Earl of Home’s regiment [the 25th (Edinburgh) Regt. of Foot, of which William Home (d. 1761), 8th Earl of Home, was Col. from 1752 (Army List, 1761, p. 209 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/10); Scots Peer. iv. 480–81)], but had obtained a Civil Service appointment of some value’, and ‘when Burns knew him [1787–88] his chief means of subsistence was a pension of £300 from Government’ (LWRB, iii. 188–89 n.). ‘In the Lond. Chron. for 22 Dec. 1768, JB published “A Matrimonial Thought: To Matthew Henderson, Esq.”. After Henderson’s death, Burns wrote an “Elegy on Capt. M––– H–––” (The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, ed. James Kinsley, 1968, i. 438–42, iii. 1285–89; Cassell’s Edinburgh, i. 239; Lit. Car. p. 243; Life, 10 Nov. 1769, ii. 110–11, 489; Scots Mag. 1788, l. 571)’ (Corr. 9, p. 246 n. 41). When Burns met him in 1787, by which time JB had removed to London, he ‘was a retired soldier, civil servant, and antiquary, who had sold his properties in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire to support his expensive lifestyle in Edinburgh’ (Leask, p. 337 n. 97). 7. It is difficult to know what JB has in mind with this reference. Perhaps a clue is to be found in the following passage from EB, xx. 820, which states that Socrates ‘was no self-tormenting ascetic . . . and could be the soul of the merriment at a gay party . . . Nothing was more marked in his character than an unusually keen sense of humour, an appreciation of the comic in human nature and

stated in the Consultation Book as being one of the opponents. 4. ‘Lady Betty’s’ is presumably the house of her husband, Walter Macfarlane, in Reid’s Close, Canongate (see p. 86 n. 2). ‘Lord Kelly’ is her brother Thomas Alexander Erskine (1732–81), 6th Earl of Kellie, and elder brother of JB’s friend AE. ‘Although known in his earlier years as “fiddler Tam” (Keay and Keay, p. 359), he became one of the most notable British musicians of the era. When his father, the fifth Earl of Kellie, was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle for participating in the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, he went to Germany and studied music at Mannheim under Johann Stamitz the elder. He returned to Scotland in 1756 as a talented violinist and composer. That same year he succeeded to his father, thus becoming the sixth Earl of Kellie. For many years he was Deputy Governor of the Musical Society of Edinburgh and he composed a large number of minuets which were very popular at the dancing assemblies in Edinburgh. At one and the same time he was Grand Master of the Freemasons in both England and Scotland (ibid., p. 360), and he was well known as a dedicated imbiber and bon viveur. Samuel Foote, the actor, said of him, famously, that his face was so red it would ripen cucumbers’ (BEJ, p. 92 n. 73). At least ten symphonies by him (also known as overtures) were published between 1761 and 1770, and these were often performed in both Edinburgh and London (Oxford DNB; see also Corr. 9, p. 102 n. 43). In London on 26 May 1763, JB had taken the Earl as his guest at dinner at the Earl of Eglinton’s, where there was catch-singing, and ‘we had much laughing’ (Journ. 27 May 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 232). JB records that in Aug. 1769, while at a dinner at Leith at which he and Lord Kellie were guests, ‘My spirits sparkled in an extraordinary degree. Lord Kellie was in high glee. “Upon my soul,” said he, “we are merry. We have said a devilish number of good things”’ (Journ. 10 Aug. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 266, McGraw-Hill p. 250).

98

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 98

27/02/23 6:13 PM

9 february 1767 so that I can see you.”’ This alludes to JB’s fondness for engaging people in conversation with a view to acquiring a better understanding of their characters. 8. That is, AE. ‘Although AE never attained the rank of captain, he was styled “Captain” by many of his friends. The term “Captain” is used generally by JB and his friends for junior officers’ (Corr. 9, p. 67 n. 1).

conduct . . . And it is certain that, though the purity of Socrates is beyond question, he really had an ardent and amorous temperament.’ Another possible explanation is to be found in a passage from a draft letter by JB quoted in Grand Tour I, Heinemann p. 42, McGraw-Hill p. 43, where JB declared himself to be ‘like the ancient philosopher [Socrates] who said, “Speak,

Monday 9 February Robert Hay’s Tryal. You opened & strongly protested his innocence1 — Quite calm — Lasted till 8. Jaded a little. “arbitrary punishment”. However, the court ruled that the trial should proceed with the indictment as it stood. The sailor’s evidence was to the effect that he had been pursued by two men in soldiers’ clothes and that one of them had robbed him in a close off the Cowgate [in Edinburgh] while the other stood guard. The sailor was not able to identify Hay as being one of the men as it was dark at the time of the offence. Nevertheless, the jury unanimously found Hay art and part guilty of the crime libelled’ (BEJ, p. 47 n. 23; Justiciary Court Minute Book (NRS JC7/34, pp. 292ff.)). The jury returned their verdict the following day (Justiciary Court Minute Book (NRS JC7/34, pp. 313–14)). A detailed record of the proceedings and a transcription of JB’s notes for his plea on behalf of Hay (Yale MS. Lg 6:2) can be found in LPJB 1, pp. 141–47. It seems that JB was mistaken in believing that Hay had served in German campaigns. JB evidently thought (and so advised the Court) that Hay had been in the 5th Regt. of Foot, which ‘took part in several campaigns in Germany which the British were involved in as allies of Frederick the Great of Prussia during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63)’ (LPJB 1, p. 143 n. 499), but JB’s later petition to the King seeking clemency (see p. 100 n. 1) would state that Hay had served in the 6th Regt. of Foot, which ‘was in Gibraltar (on garrison duty) from 1753 to 1763’ (LPJB 1, p. 147 n. 522).

1. Counsel for the defence were JB, Alexander Wight and Robert Sinclair (admitted advocate 7 Dec. 1762, later appointed sheriff-depute of Lanarkshire 1775, Principal Clerk of Session 1785, d. 1802 (Fac. Adv., p. 192)) (Justiciary Court Minute Book (NRS JC7/34, p. 292)). Hay is referred to in Catalogue, iii. 1123, as the ‘most pitiable’ of JB’s clients. ‘The trial took place before the High Court of Justiciary sitting in the New Tolbooth. Robert Hay, a soldier [the indictment against him stated that he was in the 44th Regt. of Foot] in his early twenties [Scots Mag. 1767, xxix. 221, states that he ‘was but twenty-two years of age’], was accused of having robbed a sailor [John Macaulay] of 40 shillings and a silver watch. He was apprehended the day after the robbery while trying to sell the watch. At the opening of the trial, [JB], having informed the five judges hearing the case that he had been told that his client had a very fair character and had behaved remarkably well as a soldier in several German campaigns, advised the court that at the time when the robbery was said to have been committed his client was, for the first time in his life, so much intoxicated as to be unable to give a proper account of his conduct. [JB] argued that, in these circumstances, if his client was in any way accessory to the offence, the punishment sought should not be capital punishment, but should be restricted to an

99

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 99

27/02/23 6:13 PM

10 february 1767

Tuesday 10 February Very busy. Poor Hay condemned.1 Dind Mr. John Gordon’s. Geo Wallace2 & Ja. Stevenson3 — new scene, or rather old one revived — Quite comfortable & plain. Saw how various happiness is. Very good conversation. Busy all the evening. 1. The jury having returned a verdict of art and part guilty of the crime libelled, the court duly sentenced Hay to be hanged, the execution to take place in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh on 25 Mar. (Justiciary Court Minute Book (NRS JC7/34, p. 315)). JB would receive a letter, dated 20 Feb., from an anonymous friend of Robert Hay, written at Hay’s desire, giving a full account of the affair, explaining that he had been an accomplice of a John ‘Buttersfield’ (actually Butterfield), drummer in the 44th Regt. of Foot, who by then had fled to Ireland (LPJB 1, p. 147; Earlier Years, p. 311). The letter claimed that Hay had just come from Ireland on the day of the crime (23 Dec. 1766) and had letters to deliver, but was out at night, and it may be supposed, ‘in drink’, as may have been the victim (the sailor, John Macaulay) himself. Hay, according to the letter, maintained that he did not knock the man to the ground, but ‘got the watch to keep [Butterfield’s] Secret’ and not reveal his name (Corr. 5, pp. 120–21). With this new evidence, JB then prepared a petition to

the King seeking clemency (i.e. seeking a commutation of the sentence of death to that of transportation). The petition (Yale MS. Lg 6:3), a transcription of which is set out in LPJB 1, pp. 147–48, stated that Butterfield had committed the robbery while Hay ‘stood by, and afterwards accepted of a Watch as part of the Spoil’. The petition also stated (although this is not mentioned in the Justiciary Court records) that the jury had recommended mercy. JB’s petition, however, was unsuccessful. 2. George Wallace (1727–1805), advocate (admitted 19 Feb. 1754), later Commissary of Edinburgh 1792 (Fac. Adv., p. 213). JB would later refer to Wallace as ‘a worthy man’ (Journ. 4 Nov. 1776, Extremes, p. 51) with ‘a never-failing fund of conversation’ (Journ. 2 Dec. 1780, Laird, p. 272), and after supping ‘soberly’ with him one evening remarked: ‘I liked his variety of knowledge, but was uneasy to think of his want of belief; though to do him justice, he does not offensively obtrude it’ (Journ. 26 Jan. 1782, Laird, p. 422). 3. Unidentified.

Wednesday 11 February Visited Robert Hay.1 Why it is I know not; but we compassionate less a genteel2 man.3 He was very quiet. You had a kind of sentiment as if He was utterly insensible to good. But He said if He had got time, he would have been a new man as from his mother’s breast & wept — Had Bible — Spoke to him seriously & calmly — Bid him free innocent People but not impeach a companion if in trust4 — At 8 Miss –––– a little. 1. Hay was held in the Tolbooth, the ‘grim and massive’ ancient prison situated at the north-west corner of the Church of St. Giles (for which, see p. 111 n. 3) and

encroaching so far upon the High Street as to leave the thoroughfare only 14 feet (4.25 m) wide at that point (Cassell’s Edinburgh, i. 124). ‘Antique in form, gloomy and

100

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 100

27/02/23 6:13 PM

12 february 1767 haggard in aspect, its black stanchioned windows opening through its dingy walls like the apertures of a hearse, it was calculated to impress all beholders with a due and deep sense of what was meant in Scottish law by the squalor carceris. At the west end was a projecting ground-floor . . . The building itself was composed of two parts, one more solid and antique than the other, and much resembling, with its turret staircase, one of those tall narrow fortalices [for-

tified houses] which are so numerous in the Border counties’ (Chambers, p. 193). The conditions inside this intimidating building were notoriously bad, the foul stench being particularly intolerable (BEJ, p. 7; Arnot, p. 300). 2. MS. ‘genteell’ changed to ‘genteel’. 3. That is, we have less sympathy for a genteel man in affliction than a poor man. 4. That is, if he held information in trust.

Thursday 12 February Opened cause of Osborns1 against Earl of Dumfries,2 before Lord Hales.3 Burnet Lord Probationer4 sat by. You was quite in the spirit of bold eloquence. Sir A. Dick & Mr. Frazer din’d. Had letter from Earl Chatham5 &c. 1. John and Samuel Osborn (or Osburn), former tenants of the lands of Cosencon (or Carsencon), in the parish of Old Cumnock, Ayrshire (Information for John and Samuel Osburns dated 23 Apr. 1768 and Information for William Earl of Dumfries and Stair dated 7 Mar. 1768 (Signet Library, 135:17 and 143:21)). 2. William Dalrymple-Crichton (d. 1768), 5th Earl of Dumfries (Comp. Peer. iv. 500–01). ‘He held a commission in the army and served in various regiments. At the battle of Dettingen, 27 June 1743, he acted as aide-de-camp to his uncle John, second Earl of Stair. He was made a [Knight of the Thistle] in 1752, and in 1760 he succeeded his younger brother James as fourth Earl of Stair . . . , being styled Earl of Dumfries and Stair’ (Scots Peer. iii. 237). The Dumfries and Auchinleck estates adjoined each other, so that the families were neighbours in Ayrshire. 3. The cause to which JB refers was a process of suspension brought by John and Samuel Osborn in respect of a charge for payment following on a decree dated 17 June 1766 by the sheriff-depute substitute at Ayr (William Logan of Castlemains) in an action against them by the Earl of

Dumfries, their landlord. In such cases, the Court of Session proceedings were normally stated as being at the instance of the charger; but there was not complete uniformity in this respect and the proceedings were sometimes stated as being at the instance of the suspender (LPJB 2, p. 399 n. 49), and it is no doubt for this reason that JB on this occasion gives the name of the case as ‘Osborns against Earl of Dumfries’. The Earl contended that, contrary to the Enclosing Ground Act 1685 (RPS, 1685/4/73; APS viii 488, c. 49; LAP, c. 39) and the Planting Act 1698 (RPS, 1698/7/160; APS x 175, c. 35; LAP, c. 16), the Osborns had cut down a large number of trees on the lands leased by them. The decree stated that the sheriffdepute substitute had found it proved that, during the previous thirty years while the defenders had possessed the lands, 315 trees on the lands, all more than twenty years old, had been cut down, and that as it had not been pretended that any warrant or order had been given by the Earl for cutting the trees, the judge found the defenders liable to pay £20 Scots for each of the trees (being the statutory penalty), amounting in all to £6,300 Scots. On 20 Feb. 1767, having considered the submissions of counsel

101

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 101

27/02/23 6:13 PM

12 february 1767 for each side, Lord Hailes would pass the case to the Inner House for consideration by the whole court on one point relating to the correct interpretation of the 1698 Act. In accordance with Lord Hailes’s interlocutor, each side lodged an Information. The Information for John and Samuel Osborn was by Andrew Crosbie and the Information for the Earl of Dumfries was by Robert McQueen (Information for John and Samuel Osburns dated 23 Apr. 1768 (Signet Library 135:17) and Information for William Earl of Dumfries and Stair dated 7 Mar. 1768 (Signet Library, 143:21)). JB’s first notebook in respect of Court of Session cases in which he was engaged contains his notes of the judges’ remarks at the hearing before the Inner House in or about July 1768 (Yale MS. Lg 5.5, pp. 39–41). The notes are transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 380–81, endnote D. The notes show that the court remitted the case to Lord Hailes ‘to hear parties farther, & do therein as he shall see cause’. The Court of Session process relating to this case has not been traced and the ultimate outcome is not known. 4. James Burnett, Lord Monboddo. Later the author of the six-volume work Of the Origin and Progress of Language (1773–92) and the six-volume work Antient Metaphysics (1779–99), he was renowned for eccentricities and oddities of thought, such as his belief in the existence of men with tails. ‘Other views of Monboddo’s which came in for a fair amount of derision included the notion that man is related to the orang-outang, the belief that it was surprising that the orang-outangs which had been brought to Europe had never learned to speak, and the conviction that all nations were at one time or another cannibals. The truth was, however, that Monboddo’s views deserved more respect than they were given, for he was really to a certain degree a pre-Darwinian evolutionist (taking the view, as explained by Cloyd, that “man and the ape must have had some common ancestor similar in form, structure, and appearance to the great apes” [Cloyd, p. 163]), and, to that extent, was

ahead of his time’ (BEJ, p. 558). As Lord Monboddo had only been appointed a Lord of Session on the day of this journal entry, he was serving his probationary period as Lord Probationer. A probationer ‘sat three days in the Outer House beside the Lord Ordinary and then made report on a case to the Inner House. He then sat for one day in the Inner House where he was called on first to advise the causes heard: AS 31 July 1674; Spottiswood, [iv–v]’ (MBFA, p. 96 n. 154). Shortly after Monboddo’s elevation to the bench, he moved to a fashionable new house at 13 St. John’s Street, off the south side of the Canongate. Here JB dined as a guest of Lord Monboddo’s on many occasions (at least thirteen are recorded in JB’s journals). For many years they were on very amicable terms and had considerable respect for each other (see, e.g., Journ 3 Feb. 1776, Ominous Years, pp. 229–30: ‘I went to dine at Lord Monboddo’s . . . and had a very agreeable meeting . . . My Lord said that he never asked company to his house but those for whom he had a regard . . . My Lord’s manliness of mind and store of knowledge humbled me’). And Lord Monboddo hospitably entertained JB and SJ at his country estate of Monboddo in Kincardineshire during JB and SJ’s tour of Scotland in 1773 (Journ. 21 Aug. 1773, Hebrides, pp. 53–58), on which occasion JB recorded that he ‘had a particular satisfaction in being under the roof of Monboddo, my lord being my father’s old friend, and having been always very good to me’ (Hebrides, p. 57). However, in 1785 JB was to publish his Letter to the People of Scotland, in which he quite inexcusably referred to Lord Monboddo as ‘a grotesque philosopher, whom ludicrous fable represents as going about avowing his hunger, and wagging his tail, fain to become cannibal, and eat his deceased brethren’. Offensive references to Lord Monboddo were also made in JB’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (first published in 1785), such as the following passage from JB’s record of conversations JB (and others) had with SJ on 16 Aug. 1773 (Tour to the Hebrides,

102

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 102

27/02/23 6:13 PM

13 february 1767 p. 46): ‘We talked of the Ouran-Outang, and of Lord Monboddo’s thinking that he might be taught to speak. Dr. Johnson treated this with ridicule . . . “[I]t is as possible that the Ouran-Outang does not speak, as that he speaks. However, I shall not contest the point. I should have thought it not possible to find a Monboddo; yet he exists.”’ That Lord Monboddo was naturally offended by remarks such as these became apparent on an occasion in 1786 when JB was in the Advocates’ Library: ‘Lord Monboddo came into the Library. I bowed to him, but he did not speak to me. I understood afterwards that he was violent against me. I did not care. I considered that it would make him fair game in Dr. Johnson’s Life’ (Journ. 12 Jan. 1786, Experiment, p. 27). 5. William Pitt (1708–78), 1st Earl of Chatham. Pitt had resigned from the government in 1761 after serving as Secretary of State for the Southern Department during the Seven Years’ War. He was created Earl of Chatham on 4 Aug. 1766 and was

Prime Minister (as Lord Privy Seal) from July 1766 to Oct. 1768 (Corr. 5, p. 1 n. 1; Namier and Brooke, iii. pp. 290 and 298). JB had written to Chatham with regard to Corsica on 18 Sept. 1766, asking if he would ‘befriend a noble and unfortunate little nation whom I have seen with the enthusiasm of liberty and for whom I shall be interested while my blood is warm’ (Corr. 5, p. 64). JB received no reply, but sent a further letter on 3 Jan. 1767, this time mentioning (among other things) the Proclamation which ‘stands in force by which the Subjects of Great Britain are prohibited from holding any intercourse with the Malecontents of Corsica’ and saying: ‘If Your Lordship would only get us that Proclamation annulled, it would be of great consequence in the mean time’ (Corr. 5, p. 107). However, Chatham’s reply of 4 Feb. 1767 (received by JB on 12 Feb.) stated: ‘I see not the least ground, at present, for this Country to interfere, with any justice, in the affairs of Corsica’ (Corr. 5, p. 117).

Friday 13 February In the morning, a little at President’s. Was much at home. Had been a day or two ago with Major Bentinck1 who had called for you twice, a Relation of Count Bentinck’s2 at the Hague. Had heard much of you. A very pretty man. President[,] more Lords & Sollicitor3 dined here. You was not in flow of spirits, but well. Evening had curious work about your house. Was amused with the cares of it. 1. Volkier Rudolph Bentinck (1738– 1820), of one of the collateral branches of the powerful Dutch/British Bentinck political, military and naval dynasty, an army officer initially in the British service, later in the Scots Brigade in the Netherlands. He had doubtless sought out JB on the recommendation of his distant relation, Count Bentinck (see next note), whom JB had met in Holland, and from whom he had also doubtless ‘heard much’. He was apparently living above the Boswell family residence in Blair’s Land (for which, see Introduction, p. 30 n. 215) (From Robert Brown, 15 Jan. 1768,

Corr. 7, p. 6). Born in the Netherlands, he had been commissioned Lt. in the Royal American Regiment in Apr. 1756, when aged eighteen. He sailed for America in May 1756, served under Col. Henry Bouquet, and among other action took part in the attack on Fort Duquesne in Nov. 1758, of which he was one of only two of the officers to survive. He departed for England in July 1762 (Bentinck’s MS. Journal of Service in America during the French and Indian War, 1756–1762, which in 2020 became part of the Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection of the American Revolution Institute,

103

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 103

27/02/23 6:13 PM

13 february 1767 Washington, D.C.; ). On 24. Nov 1766, he had been appointed Maj. of the First (or Royal) Regt. of Foot, 2nd Battalion (Army List, 1767, p. 55 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/17)), whose Col. at that time was Lt.-Gen. John Campbell (1723–1806), styled Marquis of Lorne, from 1770 the 5th Duke of Argyll, and who in Mar. would become Commander-inChief of the forces in Scotland (Scots Peer. i. 386–87). Bentinck would be promoted to Lt.-Col. of the same regiment on 15 July 1768 (Army List, 1770, p. 55 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/20)). In June 1770, he would be sent, with five companies of the Regiment, as Commander-in-Chief and acting Lt.-Gov., to the island of Jersey, to deal with a wave of social and economic unrest there, leading to the development of a Code of Laws, confirmed in 1771 (which earned him an attack by the frequently vitriolic political polemicist Dr. John Shebbeare (1709–88), An Authentic Narrative of the Oppressions of the Islanders of Jersey . . . 2 vols, 1771, Vol. 2, pp. 296–419) (Calendar of Home Office Papers of the Reign of George III, Vol. 3, 1770–1772, ed. Richard Arthur Roberts, 1881, #428, 551, 611, 616, 1155, 1162, 1175; Charles Le Quesne, A Constitutional History of Jersey, 1856, pp. 426–28). In the late 1770s he would enter the service of the Scots Brigade in Holland, rising to Maj.-Gen. of Infantry in 1790, succeeding Maj.-Gen. Ralph Dundas (d. 1789) as head of Dundas’s regiment. In 1794, he would lead one of the battalions fighting alongside British forces against invading revolutionary French forces near Nijmegen, and after defeat there by the French, he spent time as a prisoner of war in France (Scots Brigade, pp. xxx–xxxi and n. 4, 411 n. 1, 442 and n. 5, 503, 507, 542, 544, 546–49, 565). From 1807, he would serve as Land Commander of the Bailiwick of Utrecht, as a knight of the Teutonic Order, residing in the Order’s house in The Hague, during which period the Teutonic Order of the Bailiwick of

Utrecht was dissolved as a result of a decree signed by Napoleon in Feb. 1811, and later restored, following Napoleon’s fall, in 1815 (Bruin, pp. 222–29). 2. Christian Frederick Anthony, Count Bentinck of Varel (1734–68) (Genealogy Online), Dutch nobleman, a grandson of William (or Hans Willem) Bentinck (1649–1709), 1st Earl of Portland, and his second wife, Jane Martha Temple (1672–1751), widow of John Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley of Stratton (Comp. Peer. x. 589–91). He was the elder of the two sons of Willem, Count Bentinck (1704–74), Count of the Holy Roman Empire, and his wife, Charlotte Sophie (or Sophia), Countess von Aldenburg (1715– 1800). (Holland, Heinemann p. 233 n. 3, McGraw-Hill p. 239 n. 4, errs in referring to him as ‘a Captain in the British Navy’ – a confusion with his younger brother, John Albert Bentinck (1737–75), naval captain, marine inventor and M.P. for Rye 1761–68 (Namier and Brooke, ii. 83; Oxford DNB).) JB had recorded pleasant dealings with him in 1764 in The Hague, attending a supper on 5 May at his home (where he noted a copy of Letters Between the Honourable Andrew Erskine and James Boswell, Esq. (for which, see pp. 84–85 n. 2) in his library (Mem. 6 May 1764, Holland, Heinemann p. 233, McGraw-Hill p. 239)), and dining with him on 8 May (Mem. 9 May 1764, Holland, Heinemann p. 234, McGraw-Hill p. 240). On 25 May, JB had met him in company with Belle de Zuylen and ‘all the Zuylen family’ at the home of her uncle, Gen. Hendrik Willem Jacob van Tuyll van Serooskerken (Journ. 25 May 1764, Holland, Heinemann p. 252, McGraw-Hill p. 259). On 5 June, he wrote to JB in Utrecht to provide him with three letters of introduction for his forthcoming travels in Brunswick in the German territories: to the German diplomat Jean-Baptiste Feronce von Rotenkreutz (1723–99), Ekhard August von Stammer (1705–74) and Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem (‘the Abbé Jerusalem’) (1709–89) (Yale

104

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 104

27/02/23 6:13 PM

14 february 1767 MS. C 143, Holland, Heinemann pp. 266– 67, McGraw-Hill pp. 273–74; Journ. 1, pp. 16–17 nn. 7 and 9, p. 20 n. 2). He wrote again on 7 June with another letter of recommendation, which JB had ‘desired’, to another (not identified) person (Holland, Heinemann p. 269, McGraw-Hill p. 276). JB ‘waited on’ Feronce on 27 June 1764, noting in his journal that ‘I had a letter for him from young Count Bentinck at the Hague’ and that Feronce ‘presented me to M. de Stanmer [sic] . . . for whom I had also a letter from Count Bentinck’. Next day he waited on Jerusalem, ‘for whom I had a letter from Count Bentinck’ (Journ. 27, 28 June 1764, Journ. 1, pp. 15, 19). His wife, Maria Catharina van Tuyll van Serooskerken (1743–93), whom he had mar-

ried in 1760 (Genealogy Online), was a cousin of Belle de Zuylen (Holland, Heinemann p. 233 n. 3, McGraw-Hill p. 239 n. 4). Bentinck once acted as an intermediary in the epistolary relationship between Belle de Zuylen and JB, enclosing a letter from her to JB of 18–19 June 1764 (Yale MS. C 3165, translated from her original French in Holland, Heinemann pp. 294– 98, McGraw-Hill pp. 302–07) with one of his own of 22 June 1764 (Yale MS. C 145, Holland, Heinemann p. 296, McGraw-Hill p. 305). The Count’s letters of 5 and 7 June 1764 had asked JB to keep him in his memory and to write to him (but the correspondence between them evidently lapsed). 3. The Solicitor-General, Henry Dundas.

Saturday 14 February Had composed song on Hamilton Cause.1 Lord Hales — very witty — But put it in the fire — you’ll make yourself ennemys. He had frighten’d you, such is still your weakness. Shewed it to Sir Adam[,]2 D. Hume3 &c[.] [A]ll lik’d it — no venom — No said D. H. ’Tis not in you. Sung it in Parliament House4 with Circle round you. Had the vivida vis5 of Wilkes.6 Resolved to follow your own Plan. Walk’d down with Sir Adam & Nairne7 to Lord Alemoor’s.8 Viewed My Lord calmly — Felt the sentiment of awe for others gone. Afternoon very busy. Mr. W. Wilson S. at tea with you. At 6 Miss –––– at Philippi.9 Had been indifferent for this week. You & She this night first cold & upbraiding — Then kind as ever. Home & labour again. 1. That is, a song, satirizing the 886page Memorial for the Duke of Hamilton and others by Sir Adam Fergusson of Kilkerran in the Douglas Cause (for which, see Introduction, pp. 20–29). In his Memorial, part 3, pp. 302–11, Sir Adam (‘whose knowledge of mathematics was rather more extensive than his sense of humour’ (Earlier Years, p. 316)) had ‘computed the odds against Archibald’s and Sholto’s being other than the “abandoned” children of Mignon and Sanry, and [at p. 309] had come out with the figure 11,533,394,545,595,999 to 1’ (ibid., pp. 316 and 536). JB would pub-

lish the song, in the March issue of the Scots Mag. xxix. 119, as ‘The H------n Cause’, with an epigraph, ‘Nos numeri sumus’, part of a sentence (slightly misremembered by JB) from Horace’s Epistles (I. ii. 27), ‘Nos numerus sumus et fruges consumere natit’ (meaning ‘We are but ciphers [or ‘We are but numbers’ (being JB’s meaning)], born to consume earth’s fruits’) (Horace: Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica, Loeb Classical Library 194, translated by H. Rushton Fairclough, 1926, pp. 264–65), to the tune of an old English ballad, ‘Derry Down’ (or ‘A Cobler there was’), which had had many

105

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 105

27/02/23 6:13 PM

14 february 1767 versions and iterations throughout the century, but was probably known to JB through the use of the tune for Air 56 of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. It is, supposedly, being sung by Fergusson:

O’er Europe we’ve hunted, and got to our aid Philosophers gratis, and lawyers when paid; And if light-hearted ladies have said I’m not gay, They now sure must own, that I figure away.         Derry down, &c.

Alas! my poor brethren, poor sons of the laws, You’re all knock’d o’ the head by the H ------ n cause; No more can you live by your noisy vocation, The plan now is silent and slow calculation.       Derry down down, &c.

Was there e’er such an age? Sure some demon must quell Our spirit, and blast ev’ry tale we can tell; Tho’ for eight hundred pages I’ve averr’d I’m right, They won’t even credit the word of a Knight.         Derry down, &c.

You may e’en make a bonfire of Bankton and Stair, And betake you to Sherwin, to Cocker and Mair; The Roman Twelve Tables exploded shall be, The table of Multiplication for me.        Derry down, &c. Even L------ t himself, the respectable D--n, [Lockhart; Dean] For his client at all times so able, so keen, Who has spoke forty years in so noble a style, Must submit to be thrown on our funeral pile.         Derry down, &c. D----s may to A------n quickly retire,  [Dundas; Arniston] With his boldness, dispatch, penetration, and fire; Since the session’s become quite another affair, M-----w S-----t* must now take the P-------t’s chair. [President’s]        Derry down, &c. All the rules are of use, and I value them all, Tho’ little to us on Division would fall: On each single rule a whole life must be spent, But give us Reduction, and we are content.         Derry down, &c.

Like Samson of old, I confess we now find That our beauty has charms which have made us all blind; So in rage and despair, with a terrible joy, The house we’ll pull down, and the law we’ll destroy.         Derry down, &c. [Edinburgh, Feb. 1767]

An asterisk on ‘M-----w S-----t’ leads to a footnote, ‘P––––r of M––––cs in the u––––y of E––––gh’. That is, Matthew Stewart (1717–85), Professor of Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh (Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 156; Oxford DNB).   ‘Bankton and Stair’ refers to Andrew McDouall (1685–1760), Lord Bankton, An Institute of the Laws of Scotland in Civil Rights . . . After the General Method of the Viscount of Stair’s Institutions, 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1751–53 (Boswell’s Books, #2130, p. 268), and James Dalrymple (1619–95), 1st Viscount Stair, jurist and statesman, The Institutions of the Law of Scotland . . . , 1681. Its second edition, 1693, had been acquired by JB’s grandfather, James Boswell, in 1694, and was in the Auchinleck House library, with notes in his hand (Boswell’s Books, #946, p. 173).

106

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 106

27/02/23 6:13 PM

14 february 1767   ‘Sherwin’ refers to Henry Sherwin, Sherwin’s Mathematical Tables (1742) (Boswell’s Books, #3058, p. 340).   Edward Cocker (1631–75) published in 1685 a volume entitled Cocker’s Decimal Arithmetick. There were many later editions, and from 1762 the work was entitled A Treatise of Arithmetic (ESTC). John Mair (?1702/03–69) was the author of textbooks on arithmetic and other subjects (bookkeeping, history, geography and Latin syntax among them); the book to which JB alludes as ‘Cocker and Mair’ is probably Cocker’s Treatise of Arithmetic in A new edition, revised and corrected by John Mair A.M., Edinburgh, 1765.   The reference to the Twelve Tables is to the first codification of Roman law, in 451 b.c. (Watson, pp. 12–13).   ‘Succeeding lines are a string of arithmetical doubles entendres: Sir Adam wants reduction but fears division; the light-headed ladies who think him not gay must surely now admit that he figures away’ (Earlier Years, p. 317). ‘Sir Adam, whom Burns was later to call “chaste Kilkerran,” seems never to have taken any interest in women’ (ibid.; Burns, ‘The Author’s Earnest Cry and Prayer’, l. 74). Burns would also refer to him as ‘maiden Kilkerran’ (‘Ballad Second: The Election’, l. 69).   The song brought about a riposte-inkind (in the form of a poem) by Andrew Stuart (1725–1801), W.S. (admitted 10 Aug. 1759) (W.S. Register, p. 310; Oxford DNB), one of the agents on the Hamilton side, among those who had hunted ‘O’er Europe’ for evidence in support of the Hamilton case, in the course of which hunting JB had met him and Nairne (for whom, see n. 7 below) at The Hague (Journ. 1 June 1764, Holland, Heinemann pp. 257–59, McGrawHill pp. 264–66). At that time, JB had ‘not yet taken sides in the Douglas Cause; when later he became an ardent supporter of Douglas, he conceived a violent antipathy to Stuart’ (Holland, Heinemann p. 258 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 265 n. 6). For the text of Stuart’s poem (headed ‘To the Author

of the Poem on the Hamilton Cause’), see Lillian de la Torre, The Heir of Douglas, pp. 210–11. For other songs JB would compose in connection with the Douglas Cause, see below pp. 189–90 n. 3. 2. Sir Adam Fergusson of Kilkerran. As the author of the Memorial for the Duke of Hamilton, Fergusson obviously had grounds for taking offence at JB’s song, yet, oddly, JB includes him in the ‘[A]ll’ who ‘lik’d it’. ‘Fergusson was an able, sober, scholarly young man of high moral character and attractive, if somewhat humourless, personality’ (Namier and Brooke, ii. 419). He acquired a considerable reputation for himself as counsel for the Duke of Hamilton and also as counsel for the infant Countess of Sutherland in her litigation to establish her right to the peerage (for whom, see p. 121 n. 1). In 1772, after Fergusson’s remarking that ‘in the British constitution it is surely of importance to keep up a proper spirit in the people, so as to preserve a proper balance against the Crown’, SJ would famously say: ‘Sir, I perceive you are a vile Whig’ (Journ. 31 Mar. 1772, Defence, p. 91; Life ii. 170). 3. David Hume, philosopher and historian. Hume had been Keeper of the Advocates’ Library from 1752 to 1757. From 1763 to 1765 he had been in France, but in Jan. 1766 he had travelled to England with Jean-Jacques Rousseau to help him find refuge there. Hume had returned to Edinburgh in or about Sept. 1766 with the intention of staying at his flat at James’s Court in the Lawnmarket and concentrating on philosophical matters, but in Feb. 1767 he accepted an offer of appointment as Under-Secretary at the Northern Department, which necessitated a move back to London. He left for London on 16 Feb. (see Journ. 15 Feb.), only two days after the scene in Parliament House described by JB. JB had been friendly with Hume since 1758, when he had been a guest at Hume’s residence at ‘Jack’s Land’ in the Canongate. JB later wrote to WJT that Hume was ‘a most discreet, affable man as ever I

107

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 107

27/02/23 6:13 PM

14 february 1767 met with . . . He is indeed an extraordinary man, few such people are to be met with now adays’ (29 July 1758, Corr. 6, p. 6). As to Hume’s attitude towards JB at about this time, he said of him in 1766 that he was ‘very good-humoured, very agreeable, and very mad’ (letter dated 12 Jan. 1766 to the Comtesse Boufflers (Letters DH, ii. 11)). In 1762, JB and AE visited Hume at his flat in James’s Court and found him ‘in a good room newly fitted up, hung round with Strange’s prints. He was sitting at his ease reading Homer’ (Journ. 4 Nov. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, pp. 100–01). From May 1771 to May 1773, JB and his wife, having moved from Chessel’s Court (off the south side of the Canongate), would occupy Hume’s flat, JB having become Hume’s tenant after Hume moved to the New Town (Corr. 1, p. 260 n. 3, p. 265 n. 6). 4. The Parliament House, where the Court of Session sat, was ‘situated at the south-west corner of Parliament Close to the south of the Church of St Giles. The Parliament House consisted of a hall (which before the Treaty of Union of 1707 was used for the sessions of the Scottish Parliament) and a wing to the east . . . The front of the Parliament House facing Parliament Close was built of ashlar, while the remainder of the building was constructed largely of rubble, and at the corners all round were large ashlar pilasters with rectangular turrets on top. Sun-dials with copper gnomons were fixed on the two turrets at the south end of the building. In the angle between the hall and the east wing was a large circular turret containing a spiral staircase’ (BEJ, p. 10; see also Cullen, p. 4). 5. Vivida vis: ‘lively force’ (Lucretius, De rerum natura, i. 72). 6. John Wilkes (1725–97), radical politician. At a boarding school in Hertford he acquired a lifelong passion for the classics; and from 1744 to 1746 he studied at Leiden University, where, he told JB, he was ‘always among women’, had ‘[t]hree or four whores’ and was ‘drunk every night’ (Mem. 6 Mar. 1765, Grand Tour II, Heine-

mann pp. 56–57, McGraw-Hill p. 54). In 1747, he entered into an arranged marriage with Mary Mead (d. 1784), whose dowry was Aylesbury manor, Buckinghamshire. This marriage ‘was a mismatch between a simple, devout woman and a sophisticated rake, one that not even the birth of a daughter, Mary (known as Polly), in 1750 could save’. They separated in 1756, with Wilkes keeping the estate at Aylesbury. Polly elected to live with him, ‘and their loving relationship was thought even by his severest critics to be a redeeming feature of Wilkes’s life’ (Oxford DNB). Wilkes was elected M.P. for Aylesbury in 1757 and, after much bribery, again in 1761. However, by 1762 his extravagance resulted in great financial difficulties, and he took to journalism to try to restore his fortunes. With the poet and satirist Charles Churchill (1732–64) he had founded a weekly political journal called The North Briton in response to the pro-government The Briton, edited by Tobias Smollett (1721–71). It published its first issue on 5 June 1762 and ran weekly, appearing on Saturdays. The purpose of this periodical was to attack the ministry of John Stuart (1713–92), 3rd Earl of Bute, who became Prime Minister (as First Lord of the Treasury) in May 1762. The Scottish-born Bute was George III’s favourite, but was ‘much disliked by the English, not only for being a Scot but also for allegedly giving undue preferment to his countrymen’ (BEJ, p. 26). The attacks on Bute and his administration in The North Briton, which was ‘scurrilous, abusive, full of insult and slanderous innuendo’, were often written with ‘a ferociously xenophobic anti-Scots tone’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 341 n. 12). JB wrote to JJ on 22 Feb. 1763, from London, where he regularly read the North Briton: ‘The North-Briton is a bold insolent paper. He lashes without reserve . . . I differ much from Mr. Wilkes the Author of the N.B. yet I love his cleverness’ (Corr. 1, p. 50). JB first saw Wilkes in London on 27 Nov. 1762 when taken as a guest by Lord Eglinton to a meeting of the Beefsteak

108

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 108

27/02/23 6:13 PM

14 february 1767 Club, and first met him on 24 May 1763, when he found him ‘a lively facetious man’ (LJ 1762–63, 27 Nov. 1762, 24 May 1763, pp. 13, 229).   During Bute’s ministry, which came to an end in Apr. 1763, ‘the main focus of [The North Briton’s] attack was the treaty of Paris ending the Seven Years’ War, condemned as far too generous to defeated France’, and when George Grenville (1712–70) (who succeeded Bute as Prime Minister) brought the parliamentary session to an end ‘by a king’s speech commending the peace, [The] North Briton no. 45 on 23 April denounced “the ministerial effrontery” of obliging George III “to give the sanction of his sacred name” to such “odious” measures and “Unjustifiable” declarations’ (Oxford DNB). The North Briton No. 45 was construed as a seditious libel against the King, and Grenville authorised the issuing of ‘a “general warrant” for the arrest of the authors, printers, and publishers of No. 45 and for the seizure of their papers. The general warrant, without naming any particular persons, authorized government “messengers” to arrest anyone whom they had probable cause to believe had participated in the seditious libel’ (Poser, p. 248). Forty-nine people, including Wilkes, were arrested, and Wilkes was held in the Tower of London (ibid., pp. 248–49). ‘The government’s fierce overreaction to No. 45 made Wilkes a popular hero,’ and when, on 6 May, Lord Chief Justice Sir Charles Pratt (later Lord Camden) in the Court of Common Pleas (for whom, see p. 329 n. 38) ordered Wilkes’s release, agreeing with Wilkes’s counsel that the general warrant was ‘an illegal use of government power and . . . that Wilkes was immune from arrest on the ground of parliamentary privilege’, this was accompanied by ‘the outspoken joy of a pro-Wilkes mob attending the hearing’ (ibid., p. 249). Westminster Hall, where the court sat, ‘echoed with shouts of “Wilkes and liberty”’. On 15 Nov. the House of Commons resolved that The North Briton No. 45 was a seditious libel

and on 24 Nov. that seditious libel was not protected by parliamentary privilege. The debate in the House of Commons on 15 Nov. ‘had resulted in a pistol duel the following day in Hyde Park between Wilkes and an MP, Samuel Martin [1714–88], who had impugned his personal courage. Wilkes was so badly wounded [he had been shot in the abdomen] . . . that he was unable to attend any further legal or parliamentary proceedings’ (Oxford DNB), and on 25 Dec. he fled to France. On 21 Feb. 1764, the Court of King’s Bench convicted Wilkes in absentia of libel, and on 1 Nov., after he had repeatedly failed to attend court for sentencing, the court declared him to be an outlaw. Wilkes remained on the Continent for four years, staying in Paris, Naples and Geneva. He then resolved to seek election as one of the four M.P.s for the City of London in the 1768 general election and returned to London for that purpose in Feb. 1768. However, he came last in the list of seven candidates. He then announced that he would stand for the county of Middlesex. He also announced that he would surrender himself to justice when the Court of King’s Bench was due to sit on 20 Apr. On the assumption that Wilkes would be imprisoned after appearing in court on 20 Apr., the cabinet decided to expel Wilkes from Parliament. ‘But Lord Mansfield [for whom, see p. 326 n. 2] deemed his attendance in court voluntary, and the ministry feared a riot if he was arrested. Wilkes, anxious to resolve the legal situation, delivered himself into custody on 27 April, only to be freed by a mob. In a farcical sequel to this episode he stole into prison in disguise’ (ibid.). On 8 June, Lord Mansfield reversed Wilkes’s outlawry on a technicality, but, on 18 June, the Court of King’s Bench sentenced him to imprisonment for ten months in respect of his conviction for libel in relation to The North Briton No. 45 and also to imprisonment for twelve months in respect of his conviction for libel in relation to the publication of a revised version of Thomas Potter’s obscene poem, An Essay

109

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 109

27/02/23 6:13 PM

14 february 1767 on Woman (Poser, pp. 253–55). ‘While in prison, Wilkes ran three times for election as a member of Parliament for Middlesex. Each time he won, and each time the House of Commons refused to seat him’ (ibid., p. 255). Wilkes would be released from the King’s Bench Prison on 17 Apr. 1770 (White, p. 528). He ‘finally took his seat in Parliament in December 1774, and eight years later the House of Commons voted to expunge from the record its previous resolution expelling him and declaring him incapable to be elected’ (Poser, p. 255). 7. William Nairne (d. 1811), advocate (admitted 11 Mar. 1755), later Lord Dunsinnan (appointed Lord of Session 9 Mar. 1786 and Lord Commissioner of Justiciary 24 Dec. 1792) (Fac. Adv., p. 162; College of Justice, p. 538). JB had described him as ‘an honest upright fellow; somewhat stiff in his manner, but not without parts in a moderate degree’ (Journ. 4 Nov. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 104). On meeting him in The Hague, on 1 June 1764, he had described him as ‘just the old man, quiet, sensible, worthy’ (Holland, Heinemann p. 259, McGraw-Hill p. 266). In Aug. 1773, he would be among the Edinburgh friends to whom JB was pleased to introduce SJ, and he would in fact accompany JB and SJ on the first leg of their tour to the Highlands and Hebrides, from Edinburgh to St. Andrews (Hebrides, pp. 21, 34). At the end of the tour, in Edinburgh, he would accompany JB and SJ on

a visit to Edinburgh Castle (10 Nov. 1773, Hebrides, p. 378), and later SJ supped at his home (Hebrides, p. 385). 8. Andrew Pringle (d. 1776), Lord Alemoor, admitted advocate on 3 Feb. 1736, appointed sheriff-depute of Wigtownshire in 1750, sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire in 1751, Solicitor-General for Scotland on 5 July 1755, Lord of Session and Lord Commissioner of Justiciary on 14 June 1759 (Fac. Adv., p. 174; College of Justice, p. 523). Lord Alemoor had a reputation for strict impartiality in court proceedings, mild and courteous manners both on and off the bench, and great eloquence in delivering opinions. By 1766 he suffered much from gout, being very partial to good food and wines (Ramsay, i. 324–27). JB would later write of him as being a rare example of a ‘respectable character’, and cited as an example of this the fact that he ‘made his jokes float between you and him like bubbles blown from soap into the air, so that he himself was kept distinct from the jocularity’ (Journ. 25 Apr. 1777, Extremes, p. 117). His Edinburgh residence was in Niddry’s Wynd, off the south side of the High Street (BEJ, p. 48 n. 33, and p. 124 n. 61). 9. ‘The use of Philippi to mean a place of assignation was probably suggested by Julius Cæsar, IV. iii. 284: “To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi”’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 29 n. 4, McGraw-Hill p. 27 n. 8).

Sunday 15 February Morning Erskine called. Told you what applause you got.1 You was quite firm & gay2. Church forenoon.3 Home between Sermons4 — Then to Prison5 — such an Audience! Young Divine6 preached Be not slothfull in business &c.7 Not at all applicable to his hearers — Great Genius required for a Jail Preacher — you sat in the Closet like an Isle.8 You did not like to hear the Divine in his prayer talk of a disgracefull death. Twas too shocking to his unhappy Hearers. He should have preached on Patience[,] on the necessity of Punishment[,] on the corruption of man’s nature[,] on the mercy of God. Psalms with Precentor reading line with a dolefull tone.9 Your mind now so strong, no Impression. Stewart to be tried next day sat by fire.10 He was composed as ever — Went & saw poor Hay. He was bad 110

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 110

27/02/23 6:13 PM

15 february 1767 & all heaving — could not speak — His aged mother there11 — & his Wife (a Soldier’s wife)12 very well looked — Then D. Hume’s, who was next day to set out for London.13 Tea with him. He agreed to manage your account of Corsica with Millar.14 You very pleasantly maintained your happiness in being a Christian.15 Then Miss ––––’s where you met La Cara16 in black — Your love returned — Gay & fine — Then Geo. Wallace to consult. Stewart’s Tryal.17 Supt Lord Kames18 — rather too high — What a variety you have made of Edinburgh! 1. Presumably AE is reporting ‘applause’ (i.e. praise he had heard) for JB’s performance of his song, ‘The Hamilton Cause’. 2. Perhaps meaning that he was firm in his intention to proceed with publication of the song. 3. The New Church (or New Kirk or East Kirk, later known as the High Kirk), one of the four Presbyterian churches in the medieval Church of St. Giles in the High Street. St. Giles’ dominated ‘the centre of the city with its great central tower surmounted by an “open crown”, which formed a particularly distinctive feature of the sky-line of the city in those days. The interior of St Giles’ was somewhat odd in that it was sub-divided into four separate churches: the East or New Kirk [at the east end of St Giles’], the Mid or Old Kirk, the Tolbooth Kirk, and West St Giles’ or Haddo’s Hole Kirk’ (BEJ, p. 6). The subdivisions were made in the latter half of the seventeenth century when, architecturally, St. Giles’ ‘reached its lowest ebb . . . With dividing walls, clumsy galleries projecting in all directions, and box pews, St Giles’ became a byword for ugliness’ (Gray, p. 19). The minister of the New Church was the Rev. Dr. Hugh Blair (1718–1800), D.D. (honorary degree, St. Andrews, 1757), who had been minister there since 1758 and had been Regius Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at Edinburgh University since 1762 (Fasti Scot. i. 68). His Sermons, which would be published in five volumes between 1777 and 1801, would prove immensely popular and attract great critical acclaim (Oxford DNB). The New Church ‘had a sort of dignified aristocratic charac-

ter, approaching somewhat to prelacy, and was frequented only by sound church-andstate men, who did not care so much for the sermon, as for the gratification of sitting in the same place with his majesty’s Lords of Council and Session, and the magistrates of Edinburgh, and who desired to be thought men of sufficient liberality and taste to appreciate the prelections of Blair’ (Chambers, p. 127). 4. On other occasions also, JB would attend church twice on a Sunday (for other examples, see Journ. 3 and 24 May below and Journ. 19 June 1774, Defence, Heinemann p. 223, McGraw-Hill p. 213). 5. The Tolbooth. 6. Unidentified. 7. Romans 12: 10–11. 8. That is, like an aisle (‘wing’). 9. In Presbyterian churches the precentor led the singing by reading or singing each line for the congregation to follow. ‘Fortunately only two psalms were sung at each service; for to add to vocal dreariness each successive line of the psalm was read or drawled out before it was sung to the dislocation of all music’ (Graham, SLSEC, p. 291). In his ‘Ébauche de ma vie’ (Sketch of My Life) written to introduce his life history to Rousseau at Môtiers in Dec. 1764, JB reported that, as a child of between eight and twelve in Edinburgh, ‘On me menoit a l’Eglise ou J’etois obligé d’entendre trois discours par jours avec beaucoup de priêrres impromptu et beaucoup des Psaumes chantés et tout cela se faisoit d’une maniêrre melancolique’ (‘I was taken to church, where I was obliged to hear three sermons in the same day, with a great many impromptu prayers and a great many sung

111

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 111

27/02/23 6:13 PM

15 february 1767 psalms, all rendered in a stern and doleful manner’ (Journ. 1, p. 356; translation in Earlier Years, p. 3)). 10. JB’s client William Stewart (alias James Smith), who was charged with stealing five cows and ‘two little Highland stots’. The indictment stated that the alleged offence was aggravated by Stewart having assumed a different name ‘to cover his crimes, and to save himself from being detected’ (High Court of Justiciary Processes (NRS JC26/180); High Court of Justiciary Minute Book 14 Aug. 1765–20 July 1767 (NRS JC7/34, p. 318)). 11. Not identified. In his notes for his plea for Hay, JB had said: ‘This young man is the favourite child of an old & distrest mother whom He has relieved as far as his abilitys could go & whose gray hairs must be brought with sorrow to the grave should her unfortunate Son be condemned by Your Lordships’ (Yale MS. Lg 6:2; LPJB 1, p. 143). 12. Not identified. 13. Hume was to take up his appointment as Under-Secretary of State at the Northern Department (see p. 107 n. 3). 14. Hume’s publisher, Andrew Millar (c. 1707–68) in the Strand, London, ‘who would play a major role not only in the selling of many of . . . Hume’s books but also in the dissemination of the productions of the Scottish Enlightenment more generally’ (Harris, p. 246; see also Sher, pp. 275–94, and DPB, pp. 171–73). In the event, An Account of Corsica was not published by Millar as he would retire later in the year (Lit. Car. p. 60; Sher, p. 331). 15. For JB’s attitude to Hume’s scepticism with regard to religion, see pp. 73–74 n. 12. 16. The dear one; beloved (Italian). 17. That is, the consultation was with regard to the trial of William Stewart the next day. 18. Henry Home (1696–1782), Lord Kames, who was admitted advocate on 22 Jan. 1723 and appointed Lord of Session on 6 Feb. 1752 and Lord Commissioner

of Justiciary on 15 Apr. 1763 (Fac. Adv., p. 103; College of Justice, pp. 515–17). He was the author of the Dictionary of the Decisions of the Court of Session (1741), Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion (1751), Historical Law-Tracts (1758), the highly influential Principles of Equity (1760), and the Elements of Criticism (1762). ‘[JB] was a frequent visitor at Lord Kames’ Edinburgh residence and regularly enjoyed Lord Kames’ renowned hospitality at supper. Kames, who was a tall, long-nosed man with a slightly supercilious expression, was . . . about sixty-five years old when he struck up his friendship with [JB]. He derived his judicial title from his estate of Kames, in Eccles parish, Berwickshire. His character as a judge was in marked contrast to his character in his social hours, for when sitting on the bench he had a pronounced tendency to be intolerant, impatient, irritable, and downright rude. Indeed, he was renowned for addressing colleagues and litigants alike as “bitches”. The truth was that Lord Kames had no great fondness for the practice of the law, his real interests being more inclined towards philosophy, history and literature, in all of which areas he was an author of some note. He repeatedly said that “had he been assured of £50 Sterling a-year, no consideration should have made him submit to the drudgery of mind and body which he underwent for years before and after coming to the bar” [Ramsay, i. 182–83]. As to the nature of his relationship with [JB], it is well known that Kames was fond of encouraging protégés and it seems that [JB] was one of the chosen few; two others of note who had had that distinction were Adam Smith [the political economist] and David Hume; but they had eventually fallen out with him’ (BEJ, p. 23; see also Walker, SJ, pp. 220–47; Ramsay, i. 179–218; Ross; Graham, SML, pp. 173–88). In about 1767, Kames ‘purchased a new house in Edinburgh: a grand, recently built house near the top of the east side of New Street, off the north side of the Canongate. This street, as its name implies,

112

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 112

27/02/23 6:13 PM

17 february 1767 was “a modern offshoot of the ancient city”; and it was said of Lord Kames’ house that the edifice was “thought so fine, that people used to bring their country cousins to see it” [Chambers, p. 322]’ (BEJ, p. 556). In later years, apparently beginning in June

1775, JB seriously contemplated writing his biography, and collected many materials for the purpose, but the plan remained unfulfilled: for a description, see Yale MS. M 135, ‘Materials for Writing the Life of Lord Kames’ (Catalogue, i. 83).

Monday 16 February Attended1 Stewart’s Tryal.2 He firm & composed. You pleaded with force.3 Geo Wallace was Senior Counsel. He did ingeniously. Lasted long.4 1. MS. Undeciphered word before ‘Attended’ scored out by a modern hand. 2. William Stewart’s trial took place before the High Court of Justiciary sitting in the New Tolbooth. 3. JB raised an objection, arguing that, whereas it was stated in the indictment that the owner of the cattle allegedly stolen was called Sir Robert Dalyell (i.e. Sir Robert Dalyell (or Dalziell) (d. 1791) of Binns (an estate in Linlithgowshire), Bt. (Comp. Bar. iv. 335)), there was in fact no such person, for the same man had presented a petition in the name of Sir Robert Dalziell, and on an objection being taken had presented a new one in the name of Robert Dalziell Esq. JB also objected that one of the jurymen had been called as a witness and that this was irregular, but he went on to say that he was so much sensible of his client’s innocence that he did not insist on this objection and in fact agreed that the

trial proceed. The court found the indictment ‘relevant to infer the pains of law’ (i.e. found that the indictment ‘contained a regular and consistent charge of a known crime such as might go to an assize and justify a sentence, in case the pannel should be convicted’ (Walker, LHS, p. 554)). The trial then proceeded and witnesses were adduced (Justiciary Court Minute Book 14 Aug. 1765–20 July 1767 (NRS JC7/34, pp. 318–37)). 4. The jury unanimously found Stewart guilty of the crime libelled. Their verdict was returned the following day, 17 Feb., whereupon the court sentenced Stewart to be hanged, the execution to take place in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh on 25 Mar. (ibid., pp. 338–39). In the event, he did not hang, for the King commuted the sentence to one of banishment to the plantations for life (Scots Mag. Apr. 1767, xxix. 221).

Tuesday 17 February Professor Hunter[,]1 Mathew Dickie[,]2 Grange all din’d comfortable. Evening with Miss –––– drest in the very black she had charmed you with on Sunday. You was delighted with her. Major Bentinck[,] D. Moncrieffe3 &c supped. 1. Robert Hunter (d. 1779), Professor of Greek at the University of Edinburgh. JB studied under Hunter during his university education, attending the Greek class in 1755–56 along with his friend WJT. The

university’s matriculation rolls show that JB matriculated in Greek on 10 Mar. 1756, matriculation in his day usually occurring in Mar. for the session beginning in the previous Oct. or Nov. (Pottle, ‘Boswell’s

113

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 113

27/02/23 6:13 PM

17 february 1767 University Education’, pp. 234–35). Hunter ‘was esteemed one of the best classical scholars in Scotland. His method of teaching, however, did not differ materially from that of most country schoolmasters’ (Somerville, p. 11). Since Hunter ‘belonged to the older generation who habitually spoke in Scots, he was for both [JB] and [WJT] the incarnation of all that was petty and backward-looking in Scottish intellectual life’ (Corr. 6, p. xxxvi). JB later recalled Hunter’s broad Scots and parochial mannerisms: ‘Will you hae some jeel? o fie! o fie!’ (To WJT, 1 May 1761, Corr. 6, p. 33); ‘Would it not torture you to be back again at Professor Hunter’s eating jeel?’ (To WJT, 2 Apr. 1791, Letters JB, ii. 432). 2. Matthew Dickie (d. 1793), writer in Edinburgh, admitted notary public 30 July 1756, admitted honorary burgess of the burgh of Prestwick 1770, admitted agent in the Court of Session 3 July 1772 (Finlay, i. 279, No. 1486; Un. Sc. Alm. 1775, p. 151; LPJB 2, p. 412; RBP, p. 102). Dickie

would later become JB’s law clerk (Journ. 18 Aug. 1774, Defence, Heinemann p. 285, McGraw-Hill p. 273). 3. David Stewart Moncrieffe (1710– 90), advocate (admitted 22 June 1736), Joint Deputy King’s Remembrancer 1743, sole Deputy 1752, later Baron of Exchequer 1781, died unmarried (Fac. Adv., p. 153). ‘Each Friday during the court session a sociable group of fellow advocates met at Moncrieffe’s house at Horse Wynd (one of the alleys connecting the College, on the south side of the city, with the Cowgate), where he ran a club for cards and supper’ (BEJ, p. 62 n. 6; see also, e.g., Journ. 16 June 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 223 and n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 210 and n. 9, and Journ. 17 June 1774, Defence, Heinemann p. 222, McGraw-Hill p. 212). In 1769, Moncrieffe would purchase an estate, which he renamed Moredun, in Liberton parish, Midlothian, where he had an elegant mansion and very fine gardens (Whyte, pp. 319–22).

Wednesday 18 February Was engaged from 11 to 3 in taking proof in cause Johnston against Huoys1 in Peter Williamson’s Coffeehouse.2 Clerk Brown3 — Agents Wal. Scott4 & Ro Jamieson.5 Took it most cooly & solemnly. Wondered at self. Din’d Sollicitor’s6 with Major Bentinck &c. Miss Jeanie Maxwell7 there. Mr. W. Wilson had employed you to draw Petition for Logan against Mchargs for Sherrif Court of Ayr.8 You had long Decreet to go through. You was really harrassed. Saw how difficult an Agent’s Business is. 1. The case of Archibald Johnston, Merchant in Kelso v. Thomas and John Houy, which was an action for payment of a bill and would later be appealed to the House of Lords (Parliamentary Archives, Appeal Cases and Writs of Error 1769–1770, HL/ PO/JU/4/3/16). On 17 Feb. Lord Kennet (Robert Bruce (d. 1785), admitted advocate 15 Jan. 1743, appointed Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations at the University of Edinburgh 1759, sheriff-depute of Stirlingshire and Clackmannanshire 1760,

Lord of Session 4 July 1764, later Lord Commissioner of Justiciary 16 Nov. 1769 (College of Justice, pp. 528–29)) had pronounced an interlocutor granting commission to JB to take the depositions of certain witnesses in the action. On 18 Feb. JB heard the evidence of seven witnesses. There would be a further proof on 14 Nov. in relation to one additional witness, when JB again took the evidence. The process contains a thirtyone-page manuscript report, signed by JB, of the proof on both occasions (Court of

114

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 114

27/02/23 6:13 PM

18 february 1767 Session Extracted Processes (Mackenzie’s Office), 20 Dec. 1769 (NRS CS29); Consultation Book; LPJB 2, p. 395).   Archibald Johnston (c. 1723–1815) was evidently related to the defenders by marriage, for on 11 Jan. 1754 his intended marriage to Christian Houy was announced by banns at Kelso, and the witnesses included John Houy, junior, and Thomas Houy (Scots Mag. Nov. 1815, lxxvii. 960; OPRBM). However, Johnston subsequently married as his second wife Janet Thomson (daughter of Andrew Thomson, indweller in the Kirktown of Corram), with whom he had entered into a common law marriage and by whom he had a son, Archibald, born at Edinburgh on 18 Nov. 1766 (Process of Declarator of Marriage, 1769 (Commissariot of Edinburgh, p. 44, #554)). In the House of Lords proceedings the defenders’ surname was spelled as JB spells it in this journal entry, i.e. ‘Huoy’ (JHL 15 Jan. 1770, xxxii. 401). The House of Lords does not seem to have issued a judgment in this case. 2. ‘In those days, it was common [in Court of Session cases] for a proof to be taken in a tavern or coffee house’ (LPJB 1, p. 271). At such a proof the evidence would be taken by a commissioner (normally an advocate) appointed by the Court (see also Journ. 19 Feb. below). ‘Peter Williamson (who established a penny-post in Edinburgh and printed the first Edinburgh street directory) kept a famous coffee-house in the Parliament Close next to the New Tolbooth . . . This establishment, in which “a great deal of small legal business” was transacted, “served also as a sort of vestry to the Tolbooth Church” (Chambers, pp. 126–27; see also BEJ, p. 180 and n. 192). The Tolbooth Church was one of the four churches in the Church of St Giles in the High Street’ (LPJB 2, p. 395 n. 4). 3. That is, JB’s law clerk, James Brown. 4. Walter Scott (1729–99), W.S. (admitted 13 Jan. 1755), father of Sir Walter Scott (W.S. Register, p. 283).

5. Robert Jamieson (d. 1808), W.S. (admitted 2 Jan. 1759) (W.S. Register, p. 162). Jamieson was JB’s instructing agent in this cause (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, p. 395). MS. Undeciphered words (probably a name) deleted before ‘Ro Jamieson’. 6. That is, at the house of the Solicitor-General for Scotland, Henry Dundas. 7. Jane Maxwell (c. 1749–1812), who on 23 Oct. would marry Alexander Gordon (1743–1827), the 4th Duke of Gordon, and was the second daughter of Sir William Maxwell (c. 1715–71), Bt., of Monreith (in Wigtownshire) and his wife Magdalen (Blair) (d. 1765) (Scots Peer. iv. 555–56; Comp. Bar. iv. 311; Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed., p. 1631; Oxford DNB). ‘As children, Lady Maxwell’s daughters [Jane and her sisters Eglantine (d. 1803), later the wife of Sir Thomas Dunlop-Wallace (1750–1835) of Craigie and Lochryan, Bt., and an author and playwright (Comp. Bar. iv. 276; Oxford DNB), and Catharine, who had recently married John Fordyce of Ayton (for whom, see p. 125 n. 5)] were said to have been “the wildest romps imaginable” and Jane was regularly seen riding on a sow in the High Street (Chambers, p. 298)’ (BEJ, p. 58 n. 95). The Duke of Gordon, who was one of the Scottish representative peers 1761–84 and later Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland 1794–1808, ‘was one of the handsomest men of his day [and] was famous for his social gifts’. Jane Maxwell was ‘beautiful, witty, eccentric, and daring [and] the heroine of innumerable anecdotes. She was immensely popular in society, but her marriage with the Duke did not turn out happily. She lived for long in a small house in the Highlands, but was a good deal in Edinburgh society’ (Scots Peer. iv. 556). In London, she would become socially and politically active in the 1780s and 1790s, known for hosting lavish parties at her home in St. James’s Square, Pall Mall (see Corr. 10, pp. 242, 248–49 n. 28). 8. The case of John Logan v. James McHarg and James McHarg, in which JB represented Logan, who was the tenant of

115

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 115

27/02/23 6:13 PM

18 february 1767 farms in Ayrshire known as Black Gainoch and White Gainoch. The other parties were James McHarg of Keirs (an estate about 3 miles north-east of the village of Straiton in Straiton parish in the Carrick district of Ayrshire (Armstrongs’ Map of Ayrshire)) and James McHarg in Tairly, who were the tenants of Tairly and Upper and Nether Glencraigs, all farms in Ayrshire (Tairly possibly being the same as Tairlaw, a farmstead in Straiton parish, about 2 miles south-east of the village of Straiton (RCAHMS, site number NS40SW 31)). ‘James McHarg of Keirs was listed among Ayrshire freeholders in 1759 and 1774, and is said to have died between 1777 and 1780 (Ayrshire, pp. 104, 108, 298)’ (Corr. 7, p. 249 n. 3). In 1760, he had married ‘Mally’ (i.e. Mary) Laurie (OPRBM), daughter of the Rev. James Laurie (d. 1764), minister of Kirkmichael (Fasti Scot. iii. 45), and sister of the Rev. George Laurie (d. 1799), minister of Loudoun (Fasti Scot. iii. 121), friend of Robert Burns. The background to the matter was set out in an Information drafted by JB for Logan in 1769. (The printed Information for John Logan, dated 17 Oct. 1769 and extending to thirty pages (Advocates’ Library A93:48), is transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 174–97.) The landlord of all of the farms was Sir Thomas Kennedy of Culzean, Bt., 9th Earl of Cassillis. The farms of Black Gainoch and White Gainoch had ‘immemorially’ been let to tenants along with an extensive piece of neighbouring ‘muirish hill-ground’ known as the common of Tulliemenoch (or Tallaminnoch) (Information for John Logan (supra), page 1; LPJB 1, p. 174). JB went on to explain how the dispute had arisen: ‘The farms of Tairly and Upper and Nether Glencraigs, possessed by Mess. McHargs, also lie in the neighbourhood of this common: And as all these lands are a part of the barony of Straiton, belonging to the Earl of Cassillis, his Lordship [in 1765] being about to renew the leases of that barony, thought it would be more convenient to take the common of Tulliemenoch from

the informant’s [i.e. Logan’s] possession, and add it to that of Mess. McHargs, upon condition that Mess. McHargs should pay such a rent or consideration for the common of Tulliemenoch, as two neutral men, one to be named by Mess. McHargs, the other to be named by the Earl, or by the incoming tenant in the farm of the Gainochs, should determine to be the yearly value of that common; which value or consideration should be deduced from the rent of the Gainochs . . . [T]he tenants differed about the manner in which this alteration of the rent was to be ascertained. The informant insisted, that his agreement with the Earl of Cassillis plainly imported, and could bear no other construction, than that as the rent he was bound by his missive to pay, was for the whole of the farms of Gainochs, as formerly possessed, comprehending the muir in question, the arbiters were to consider of how much less value the farm would be to him, on account of the want of that muir. On the other hand, Mess. McHargs insisted, that the muir or common was to be valued merely by itself, as a detached piece of ground, independent of any connection it had either with the one farm or the other . . . As the tenants were not likely to come to an agreement themselves, the Earl of Cassillis applied to the sheriff [at Ayr], to ordain them, in terms of their missives, to name arbiters to estimate the sum to be taken from the one rent and added to the other. Accordingly several persons were proposed as arbiters by each of the parties, from whom the sheriff-substitute named one proposed by each party’ (Information for John Logan (supra), pages 2–4; LPJB 1, pp. 174–75). However, the sheriffsubstitute gave no particular directions as to how the arbiters were to go about valuing the ground. A third arbiter was later appointed, and in due course a report was received from each. One stated that he was of opinion the common was worth £7 10s. per annum and another that it was worth £7 per annum, but the third took a very different view and expressed the opinion

116

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 116

27/02/23 6:13 PM

18 february 1767 that the value was £24 per annum. Each party was then allowed a proof of the yearly value, and evidence was taken from a large number of witnesses. Thereafter, on 24 June 1766, the sheriff-substitute pronounced an interlocutor finding that the yearly value was £19. A reclaiming petition was then presented on behalf of the McHargs, and on 26 Jan. 1767 the sheriff-depute (William Duff (d. 1781), advocate (admitted 8 Dec. 1727), sheriff-depute of Ayrshire 1747–75 (Fac. Adv., p. 60)), who took into account a decree granted in 1749 in a dispute between former tenants of the Black Gainoch and White Gainoch as to the amount of cattle the common could keep, found that the annual value of the common was £12 (Information for John Logan (supra), pages 4–7; LPJB 1, pp. 176–78). On 17 Feb., JB had received instructions from William Wilson, W.S., to draft a reclaiming petition for Logan (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, p. 374). Taking the view that the cause had been misapprehended by the sheriffdepute, Logan would later obtain letters of advocation to bring the cause before the Court of Session, and by interlocutor dated 2 Mar. 1768 Lord Kennet remitted the cause to the sheriff-depute with the instruction that he allow a proof as to the extent to which the one farm was benefited and the other deteriorated on account of the common being added to the one and taken from the other. A reclaiming petition was then presented on behalf of the McHargs, and on 24 Dec. 1768 the Inner House pronounced an interlocutor allowing both parties to give in Memorials (Information for John Logan (supra), pages 9–10; LPJB 1, pp. 180–81). On 31 Dec. 1768, JB received instructions to draft a Memorial for Logan (Consultation Book). The Memorial was dated 7 Jan. 1769 (Advocates’ Library A88:33). On 18 Jan. 1769, after considering the Memorials submitted by both parties, the Inner House pronounced an interlocutor remitting the cause back to Lord Kennet with power to call and hear counsel further on the cause. On 8 Mar. 1769, Lord Kennet granted war-

rant to both parties to compel witnesses to appear for proving the points mentioned in his interlocutor of 2 Mar. 1768, and on 29 July 1769, having considered the proof adduced, pronounced an interlocutor finding that by taking the common from the farm of Black Gainoch and White Gainoch and adding it to the farm of Tairly the farm of Black Gainoch and White Gainoch had deteriorated to the extent of £18 per annum and that therefore that amount should be deducted from the yearly rent paid by Logan and added to the yearly rent paid by the McHargs. However, a Representation was then submitted on behalf of the McHargs, and on 10 Aug. 1769 Lord Kennet pronounced an interlocutor making ‘avisandum to the Lords with the whole cause’ and appointing counsel for each party to give in an Information, whereupon JB drafted his thirty-page Information for Logan dated 17 Oct. 1769, in which he referred to the cause as ‘this dull litigation’ (Information for John Logan (supra), pages 10–12; LPJB 1, pp. 181–82). In the Information, JB attached great weight to the evidence given by John McAdam (d. 1790) of Craigengillan (in Dalmellington parish, Ayrshire). McAdam was a wealthy landowner and a noted agricultural improver. ‘He and his three children were immortalized in Burns’s verse epistle, To Mr. McAdam of Craigengillan’ (Applause, p. 7 n. 3; see also Scots Mag. 1790, lii. 465, and Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 366, where it is said that McAdam was ‘altogether a shrewd, calculating gentleman – in his views considerably ahead of the age’). JB, who knew McAdam personally, observed that ‘for good sense, activity, and prosperity’ McAdam’s life was ‘truly remarkable’ (Journ. 8 Jan. 1783, Applause, p. 51). In his Information for Logan (supra, page 25; LPJB 1, p. 192) JB stated that in relation to ‘the pasturage of sheep and cattle, and the value of a piece of muir-ground’ McAdam was ‘a gentleman whose great judgment in these matters is universally acknowledged in both parts of the united kingdoms, and

117

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 117

27/02/23 6:13 PM

18 february 1767 whose opulent fortune is a shining proof of it’. McAdam was of the view that, by being deprived of the common, Logan would be a loser to the extent of £18 yearly, and JB noted that McAdam admitted that ‘some of those who are best acquainted with the grounds assured him that it was worth a great deal more’. JB therefore argued that

Logan was entitled to plead that the value ascertained by McAdam was the minimum that the common was worth and that the court could conclude that the value was at least £22 yearly (Information for John Logan (supra), pages 25–27; LPJB 1, pp. 193–94). However, no record of further procedure in the case has been traced.

Thursday 19 February Very busy — Between 5 & 7 at the Exchange Coffeehouse1 at2 taking proof for Gilkie against Wallace.3 1. The Exchange Coffee-house was situated between Craig’s Close and Old Post Office Close (Stuart, p. 169), off the north side of the High Street near the Royal Exchange (BEJ, p. 244 n. 51). 2. MS. ‘at’ interlined. 3. The proof was in the case of James Gilkie v. William Wallace, in which JB represented Gilkie, a writer (i.e. a solicitor) in Edinburgh with a somewhat dubious reputation (for further details of Gilkie, and an account of this case, see Roughead). ‘As a young man, Gilkie had served apprentice to William Wallace, writer in Edinburgh, and in 1757 had duly obtained a discharge at the end of his apprenticeship [Petition and Complaint of James Gilkie dated 17 Dec. 1766, page 1 (NRS CS235/G/3/9)]. However, before then, a feud had developed between Gilkie and Wallace which resulted in much litigation, culminating in the present case in which Gilkie presented a Petition and Complaint dated 5 [Feb.] 1767, alleging that Wallace’s son James [who was

bap. 18 Aug. 1747 and whose mother was Wallace’s spouse, Jean Denhame (OPRBB)] had that day attempted to murder him at the north entrance to Hope Park (otherwise known as the Meadow [that is, the large area, then to the south of the city, which is now known as the Meadows]) in Edinburgh [NRS CS230/G/2/29] . . . [On 11 Feb. 1767], when the Petition and Complaint came before Lord Kennet, and [JB] appeared on behalf of Gilkie, his Lordship allowed the parties a proof in respect of their respective averments. By interlocutors dated 18 [Feb.] and 4 [Mar.] 1767, Lord Kennet granted James Dundas [1711–74], advocate [admitted 9 Feb. 1734 (Fac. Adv., p. 62)], commission to take the depositions of the witnesses adduced. Dundas duly took the depositions of the witnesses on 19 [Feb.] [at the Exchange Coffee-house] and 6 [Mar.] 1767 [NRS CS230/G/2/29]’ (LPJB 1, pp. 270–71). For later procedure in the action, see Journ. 31 Mar. and n. 2, and Journ. 1 Apr.

Friday 20 February Dind Mr. W. Hay’s1 with Dunskey2 & Grange very hearty. Supt Lady Betty’s.3 Grange at last introduced there.4 In perfect flow of sollid good-humour — very merry. After supper all the easy dignity of old nobility. Scots Toasts. Erskine begun Pitscottie5 — Grange gave (upon honour) Sir James Melvill.6 The old Countess7 Thomas The Rhymer.8 Sat till near two. 118

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 118

27/02/23 6:13 PM

20 february 1767 1. William Hay (d. 1776), of Crawfordton, W.S. (admitted 13 Jan. 1755) (W.S. Register, p. 143). 2. John Blair (d. 1772) of Dunskey (McKerlie, i. 88). Dunskey, ‘an old castle in Portpatrick parish, Wigtownshire, . . . came to the Blairs in 1648, but was quite ruinous in 1684’ (OGS, ii. 448). Blair’s seat was at Craigbuie (or Craigbouie), about 2½ miles to the north of the town of Portpatrick (Journ. 1 May 1769; McKerlie, ii. 181; TGTS, i. 242). Blair had been commissioned Ensign in the 3rd Regt. of Foot Guards on 11 Aug. 1759, and in Mar. of this year would purchase a Lieutenancy (Corr. 1, p. 16 n. 8; Scots Mag. 1767, xxix. 224; Army List, 1760, p. 50 (National Archives Discovery WO 54/8); Army List, 1767, p. 52 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/17)). He and JJ were friends. JJ remarked that ‘Blair is a fine fellow, I like him much,’ and he advised JB that ‘He is your friend and a Gentleman’ (10 Mar. 1763, Corr. 1, pp. 56–58). He was probably the ‘Captain Blair’ whom JB recorded meeting socially several times in London in 1763 (LJ 1762–63, p. 462 n. 4) and of whom he remarked: ‘He is a good worthy lad. But he has not enough of imagination, and mixes too much in the common rough intercourse of Society for me. So, we are very seldom together’ (Journ. 24 July 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 290). 3. Lady Elizabeth (‘Lady Betty’) Macfarlane. 4. The ‘at last’ refers to the fact that Lady Macfarlane had been trying for some time to arrange an introduction to JJ, and had twice, very pleasantly, recently invited JB to visit her and AE at her home, for the purpose of bringing him: ‘to Morrow is the last Day of that Week in which he [JB] promised to exhibit his Friend. But they [she and AE] hope, that the towering Oak Mr. Boswell, and that Scotch Fir the Laird of Grange, will be transplanted into their Parlour on Sunday or Monday next

at furthest’ (?13. Feb.) Next day, she again asked ‘if the Laird of Grange and his pleasant Companion can make an Incursion on Sunday or Monday’ (?14 Feb.; Corr. 5, p. 120). AE and JJ would themselves in time form a friendship; letters from AE to JJ that survived among JB’s papers are published in Corr. 1. 5. Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie (c. 1532–c. 1586), celebrated author of The Historie and Cronicles of Scotland, which was written in Scots and was first published in 1728 (Oxford DNB). A copy was in the library of Auchinleck House (Boswell’s Books, #2023, p. 261). 6. Sir James Melville (1535/6–1617) of Halhill (in Fife), Scottish diplomat, author of Memoirs of His Own Life (first published in 1683). From 1564, he was employed in the service of Mary, Queen of Scots, whom he served loyally, and he was later a respected adviser to the young James VI during the early part of that monarch’s reign. He was made a Privy Councillor and was knighted in 1590, and was a member of the Parliament of Scotland as commissioner for small barons in 1594, 1596 and 1599 (Oxford DNB; Parliaments of Scotland, ii. 485). His memoirs are regarded as being particularly important sources for British history of the period ‘through the light they shed on the human qualities of the leading actors on the public stage’ (Oxford DNB). 7. Janet (Pitcairn), second wife of Alexander Erskine, 5th Earl of Kellie, and mother of Lady Elizabeth (‘Lady Betty’) Macfarlane (Scots Peer. v. 89). 8. Thomas of Erceldoune, known as Thomas the Rhymer (fl. late thirteenth century), ‘supposed author of poetry and prophesies, is the subject of a romance dating from the fourteenth century and of a celebrated border ballad, both describing his dealings with the fairy queen’ (Oxford DNB).

119

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 119

27/02/23 6:13 PM

21 february 1767

Saturday 21 February You was quite overpowered with papers to draw — Had been accustomed too much to make the law easy & write papers like Essays for a News Paper — without reading much — Saw labour & poring necessary & reading long papers — Din’d S. Mitchelson’s1 with Sir A Dick & Family [ — ] Evening with Miss –––– again in black. Allow’d you full sight. Enchanted with her. She said next night I’ll wear black & let candles burn to keep you longer.2 1. Samuel Mitchelson (1712–88), W.S. (admitted 12 Mar. 1736), Fiscal of the Society of Writers to the Signet, 1754–55, Treasurer, 1755–death (W.S. Register, p. 228; OPRBB). A son of John Mitchelson (d. 1728) of Middleton, advocate, and his wife, Janet Hay (of the Hay of Monkton family) (Douglas’s Baronage, p. 322; Fac. Adv., p. 152). Mitchelson was ‘for many years before his death a Director of the Musical Society in Edinburgh’ and has been described as an ‘“uncommonly good performer on the German Flute”’ (Corr. 1, pp. 238–39 n. 1). JB’s later diaries report several professional as well as social dealings (e.g. 16 July 1774, a pleasant dinner at Mitchelson’s home at Corstorphine

(Defence, Heinemann p. 238, McGraw-Hill p. 227)) with both Mitchelson and his ‘amiable wife’, Jean (Oliver) (W.S. Register, p. 228), who was ‘a great friend of my wife’s’. But relations between Mitchelson and JB became strained. JB knew ‘from undoubted authority that Mitchelson . . . disliked me much, I know not for what, and took every opportunity that he could to speak ill of me’. JB, for his part, thought him ‘a sordid fellow’ (Journ. 31 Jan. 1776, Ominous Years, pp. 227–28). 2. MS. ‘Allow’d you full sight . . . keep you longer’ scored off with a modern pen. The words ‘full sight’, which are particularly difficult to decipher, are as transcribed in BP, vii. 107.

Sunday 22 February Capt & Geo. Webster1 din’d. You stayed in the afternoon, & wrote letters. Evening was with Miss –––– who came instantly on your sending, very kind. 1. JB’s cousin, Capt. James Webster (1740–81), second son of the Rev. Alexander Webster and his wife, Mary Erskine (Ominous Years, Chart V, p. 378), Ensign in the 33rd Regt. of Foot 19 June 1758 (Army List, 1759, p. 80 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/7)), Lt. 10 May 1760 (Army List, 1761, p. 86 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/10)), appointed to the army rank of Capt. 14 Jan. 1763 (LJ 1762–63, p. 419 n. 2) and Capt. in the 33rd Regt. of Foot 19 May 1763 (Army List, 1767, p. 87 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/17)), and rose to Lt.-Col. of the same regiment on 9 Apr. 1774 (Army List, 1775, p. 11 (National

Archives Discovery WO 65/25)). He had seen action during the Seven Years’ War, in Germany, where his regiment had been sent in May 1760 ‘as part of what the Prime Minister, Newcastle, called “the Glorious Reinforcement”, and joined the forces operating under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 375 n.1). He, ‘newly arrived from Germany’, had returned to London and visited JB at his lodgings on 17 Dec. 1762. ‘He looked healthy and spirited notwithstanding of all the severities that he had endured. I was very glad to see him’ (18 Dec. 1762, LJ 1762–63, p. 53). On 20 Dec. 1762, ‘We talked on a variety of old

120

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 120

27/02/23 6:13 PM

23 february 1767 Storys. He is a lively young fellow, and has humour. We were very merry. He returned me many thanks for my Company & said it revived him’ (p. 57). On 20 Apr. 1763, ‘I breakfasted with Captain Webster who was very high in spirits’ (p. 201). The 33rd would be sent, under its Colonel, the Earl Cornwallis, to America in early 1776. Webster served with distinction in the American War of Independence, particularly in the battle of Long Island (Journ. 30 Oct. 1776, Extremes, p. 50) and the battle at Camden, South Carolina, after which JB heard news of his ‘gallant cousin’ (Journ. 16 Oct. 1780, Laird, pp. 262–63, 263 n. 9). He would die of wounds received at the battle of Guilford Court House, 15 Mar. 1781, in North Carolina (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 145 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 135 n. 8). On 10 June 1781, JB visited Webster’s father: ‘Was agitated when again in the house where I had seen the poor Colonel so

often, but behaved decently.’ At the service for Col. Webster at the Tolbooth Church, JB recorded that ‘I cried much, and most of the congregation shed tears’ (Laird, p. 378 and n. 3).   His younger brother, George Webster (1744–94 (Ominous Years, Chart V, p. 378)), the Websters’ third son, was a cloth-merchant in Edinburgh (Journ. 27 Aug. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 280, McGraw-Hill p. 263). His address in Williamson, p. 80, stating the position in 1773/74, is given as ‘front of exchange’. He would later become a Magistrate, serving on the Town Council of Edinburgh, and afterwards went out to India as a merchant and as Civil Paymaster in the East India Company’s service, and died in Bengal (Scots Mag. Sept. 1771, xxxiii. 504; The Scottish Register . . . for July, August, and September 1794, iii. 340; Fasti Scot. i. 120; Yale MS. C 3082, John Webster to JB, 13 Jan. 1795).

Monday 23 February Was at service of Countess of Sutherland.1 Din’d after it in Walker’s.2 Sat by Sandie Gordon.3 Talk’d much of Madam ––––.4 Evening home. Consultations.5 1. Elizabeth Sutherland (1765–1839), Countess of Sutherland, daughter of William Sutherland (1735–66), 17th (or 18th) Earl of Sutherland, and Mary (Maxwell) (d. 1766). Her parents had died the previous year in Bath of a fever (Scots Peer. viii. 358– 59; Comp. Peer. XII. i. 562; Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed., p. 2273). She was less than two years old at this time. She was served heir to her father on this date (Index to the Services of Heirs in Scotland, Vol. 2, 1750– 1799, Index for 1760–1769, p. 37 (NRS); Scots Peer. viii. 359). Her right to the peerage had been challenged by Sir Robert Gordon (1696–1772) of Gordonstoun, Bt., and litigation ensued. On 17 Nov. and 2 Dec. 1766, JB had received instructions to attend consultations on her behalf in respect of her

action against Sir Robert Gordon (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, p. 371), and on 18 Dec. 1766 he received instructions to act on her behalf in connection with a ‘tutorial inventory’ (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, p. 372). On 21 Mar. 1771, the House of Lords would resolve and adjudge that Elizabeth Sutherland had a right to the title, honour and dignity of the Earldom of Sutherland (Scots Peer. viii. 359–60; JHL Mar. 1771, xxxiii. 128–29). In 1785, she would marry George Granville Leveson-Gower (1758–1833), styled Viscount Trentham, later styled Earl Gower, created Duke of Sutherland 1833 (Scots Peer. viii. 360; Comp. Peer. xxii. 201 and 564). 2. Walker’s tavern, in Writers’ Court, off the north side of the High Street

121

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 121

27/02/23 6:13 PM

23 february 1767 opposite the Luckenbooths (BEJ, p. 128 n. 72). Its proprietor was Charles Walker (d. 1800), vintner, Writers’ Court (Williamson, p. 82; Scots Mag. Sept. 1800, lxii. 652). 3. Hon. Alexander Gordon (1739– 92), advocate (admitted 7 Aug. 1759), appointed sheriff-depute of Kirkcudbrightshire 1764, later Lord of Session (as Lord Rockville) 1 July 1784 (Fac. Adv., p. 83; College of Justice, p. 537). He was ‘the third son of William Gordon [c. 1679–1745], second Earl of Aberdeen, by Lady Anne Gordon [d. 1791], daughter of Alexander [Gordon (d. 1728)], second Duke of Gordon . . . It was said of him as a judge that he adorned the bench “by the dignified manliness of his appearance and polished urbanity of his manners” (Douglas’s Peerage, i. 22). [JB] and Alexander Gordon were to become very close friends’ (BEJ, p. 68 n. 53). JB’s diaries in Edinburgh report frequent social dealings with Rockville and his wife, Anne (Duff) (d. 1811), Countess of Dumfries, whom he would marry in 1769.

She was the widow, and second wife, of the 5th Earl (Comp. Peer. iv. 500–01), and daughter of William Duff, sheriff-depute of Ayrshire, and Elizabeth Dalrymple (d. 1781) (Fac. Adv., pp. 60, 83). 4. Unidentified. Perhaps Mrs. Dodds. 5. On this date, JB received instructions to attend consultations in respect of the case of Thomas Millar v. George Glasgow and Samuel Stewart (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, p. 375). This was an action of reduction and improbation at the instance of Thomas Millar, weaver in Kilwinning, against George Glasgow (1729–94 (OPRBB and OPRDB)) of Nethermains, merchant in Glasgow, and Samuel Stewart, messengerat-arms in Irvine. Decree of reduction and improbation was granted by Lord Auchinleck the following day, 24 Feb. 1767 (Court of Session Minute Book (Skene’s Office), July 1763–Feb. 1771 (NRS CS80/17)). Further decrees would be granted by Lord Auchinleck in that case on 5 Mar. 1767 and 8 July 1767 (ibid.).

Tuesday 24 February Breakfasted President’s — Copied Hamilton Song1 for Mrs. Dundas.2 Supt My Lord Monboddo’s3 with Father[,] Justice Clerk[,]4 Hales &c very joyous. 1. That is, JB’s song The Hamilton Cause. 2. Lord President Dundas’s second wife, Jean Grant, third daughter of William Grant (1701–64), Lord Prestongrange, and Grizel Miller (d. 1792). Grant had been admitted advocate 27 Feb. 1722, appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland 1737, Lord Advocate 1746, M.P. Elgin Burghs 1747– 54, appointed Lord of Session 14 Nov. 1754 (Fac. Adv., pp. 89–90; College of Justice, pp. 518–20; Oxford DNB). They had married on 7 Sept. 1756 (Fac. Adv., p. 62; Arniston Memoirs, pp. 160–61). It seems that she and Dundas may eventually have separated, at least for a time. On 15 Nov. 1783, JB recorded: ‘Found [Dundas] as hearty as

ever, though parted from his lady. But I was shocked at such an instance of the instability of human connexions’ (Applause, p. 169). As noted above (pp. 105–06 n. 1), JB had referred in his song to Dundas (with ‘his boldness, dispatch, penetration, and fire’). 3. Monboddo was ‘renowned for his Roman-style suppers at which it is said that his table was bedecked with garlands of roses and flagons of wine and that he served food and drink prepared in accordance with ancient recipes, such as “Spartan broth” and mulsum (mead)’ (BEJ, p. 557; see also Cloyd, p. 56; Reminiscences, p. 174). 4. The Lord Justice-Clerk, Thomas Miller of Barskimming (for whom, see pp. 57–58 n. 47; see also BEJ, p. 555; Ramsay,

122

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 122

27/02/23 6:13 PM

25 february 1767 i. 342–50; and Omond, ii. 67–73). Miller, an Ayrshire neighbour of the Boswells of Auchinleck, was considered by them to be ‘inferior in blood and antiquity’, and they resented his advancement, particularly his appointment as Lord Justice-Clerk at a time when Lord Auchinleck was the senior Lord Commissioner of Justiciary (appointed 22 July 1755) and thus had some expectation of being promoted to that position himself (Earlier Years, pp. 292, 530). Miller did not approve of what he considered to be the excessive lengths to which JB and some other counsel went to defend prisoners in criminal cases (see pp. 75–76 n. 3). He presided at the trial of John Reid (for whom, see pp. 57–58 n. 47) in 1766; and in 1767, when giving his judgment in the Douglas Cause (for which, see Introduction, pp. 20–29), Miller referred to JB’s defence of Reid as follows: ‘We have indeed seen cases where there was a moral impossibility of the prisoner’s innocence, and yet, we have seen juries

acquit such a one. Such a case was that of Reid, who was lately tried before the criminal Court, for the crime of sheep-stealing . . . [A counsel], who likes to distinguish himself upon such occasions, patronized the prisoner’s defence, and notwithstanding the clearest and most positive evidence . . . , “The jury acquitted the prisoner”’ (Douglas Cause, p. 115). Miller would also preside at Reid’s later trial in 1774, after which JB would take the rash step of sending an anonymous letter to Lond. Chron. attacking Miller. The letter, dated 13 Sept., was published in the edition of that paper for 17–20 Sept. (Defence, Heinemann pp. 329–30, McGraw-Hill pp. 315–16). This letter almost resulted in a duel with Miller’s son, William Miller (1755–1846, admitted advocate 9 Aug. 1777, appointed Lord of Session (as Lord Glenlee) 23 May 1795 (Fac. Adv., p. 150; College of Justice, p. 542)). For this episode, see Ominous Years, pp. 11ff., and BEJ, pp. 164ff.

Wednesday 25 February At 5 Miss –––– with you — pretty well.1 At 8 at Mrs. Dunbar’s in Gossford’s Closs,2 low house but comfortable — with W. Taylor3 & Jo. Stobie4 consulting on cause of old Barclay[,] Quaker[,] London[.]5 4 Bottles good Claret drunk. Quite stile of old Consultations.6 Home & finished Paper — Was with Father. Was hearty. Ask’d him am I not doing as well as you would wish?7 Yes. Took his hand — 1. MS. ‘At 5 . . . pretty well’ interlined, with a line above to separate those words from the preceding entry. 2. Gosford’s Close, off the south side of the Lawnmarket. Possibly the same Mrs. Dunbar who is referred to in Williamson, p. 23, as being (in 1773/74) a vintner in Liberton’s Wynd (likewise off the south side of the Lawnmarket). 3. William Taylor, writer in Edinburgh, admitted notary public 24 Feb. 1741 (Finlay, i. 221, No. 1166; LPJB 2, p. 416), admitted agent in the Court of Session 1755 (Un. Sc. Alm. 1775, p. 151). In 1777,

he would be imprisoned for obstinately retaining papers belonging to a client (to whom he was indebted) notwithstanding a court decree requiring him to hand them over (Peter Hay of Leyes v. William Taylor (Supplement to the Dictionary of Decisions of the Court of Session (ed. M. P. Brown), 1826, Vol. 5, pp. 605–06)). 4. Lord Auchinleck’s law clerk, John Stobie. 5. The case of Barclay v. Ross. The Consultation Book (LPJB 1, p. 375) shows that on this date JB received instructions from William Taylor to attend a hearing in

123

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 123

27/02/23 6:13 PM

25 february 1767 this case before Lord Monboddo. The Court of Session process relating to this case has not been traced, nor any record of any procedure in the case. The pursuer was probably David Barclay (1682–1769), second son of Robert Barclay of Urie (d. 1690), ‘the Apologist of the Quakers’. David Barclay, who was a Quaker, settled in London and had a linen and merchant house in Cheapside. When he died, he was one of the wealthiest merchants in London (Burke’s Landed Gentry, 6th ed., i. 75; Barclays, pp. 15–16; Legacies of British Slave-ownership, ; Quakers in the World, ). 6. ‘It had formerly been the custom for almost all business, including consultations with counsel, to be carried out at taverns’ (BEJ, p. 49 n. 44).

7. As JB noted in his journal entry for 18 Mar, his fees for the winter session of the Court of Session (from 12 Nov. 1766 to 11 Mar. 1767) amounted to 84 guineas (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, p. 375). That his father was pleased with him at this time is confirmed by a letter to JB dated 10 Feb. from Sir John Pringle (for whom, see pp. 270–71 n. 3), written to him from London, ‘I continue to have the satisfaction of hearing from different hands of your application to business, and of the figure which You have made and are likely to make at the bar . . . By letters, which I have . . . had from my worthy friend your father (for I have had more than one upon the subject) I have the comfort to find that you have made him very happy’ (Corr. 5, p. 118).

Thursday 26 February

Friday 27 February Din’d Chief Baron’s1 with Cos. Gordon,2 Blair3 &c. Quite english — Supt Sir A. Fergusson’s4 — Fordyce[,]5 Lady Maxwell6 & all there. Genteel but idle — not much satisfyd. 1. The Right Hon. Robert Ord (1700–78), Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, who with a handsome salary of £2,000 per annum (Un. Sc. Alm. 1767, p. 55) was regarded by JB as a respectable, elegant and ‘splendidly hospitable’ Englishman (Journ. 15 Aug. 1773, Hebrides, pp. 15–16). Ord was educated at Lincoln’s Inn in 1718, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1723, called to the English Bar in 1724, M.P. for Mitchell (Cornwall) 1734–41, M.P. for Morpeth 1741–55, secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer 1742–43 and deputy cofferer of the Household 1743–44. He was appointed Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1755 and would hold that position until he

retired in 1775 (Oxford DNB; Sedgwick, ii. 312; Scots Mag. 1778, xl. 111). His Edinburgh residence was at 8 Queen Street (Life v. 28 n. 2). 2. Cosmo Gordon (d. 1800), advocate (admitted 1 Aug. 1758), later M.P. Nairnshire 1774–77, appointed Baron of Exchequer 27 Mar. 1777 (Fac. Adv., p. 83). 3. Presumably Robert Blair of Avonton (1741–1811), advocate (admitted 7 Aug. 1764), later Advocate-Depute (1789), Solicitor-General for Scotland (1789– 1806), Dean of the Faculty of Advocates (1801), appointed Lord President of the Court of Session 16 Nov. 1808 (Fac. Adv., p. 170; College of Justice, p. 546). 4. Sir Adam Fergusson of Kilkerran.

124

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 124

27/02/23 6:13 PM

28 february 1767 5. Probably John Fordyce (c. 1735– 1809), banker, from Ayton, Berwickshire (Scots Mag. July 1809, p. 559). He was a partner in the banking house of Fordyce, Malcolm and Co., and in 1766 had become Receiver-General of crown land rents and land tax in Scotland. He had recently (28 Jan.) married Catharine Maxwell and would later be M.P. for New Romney 1796–1802, Berwick-upon-Tweed 1802–03 (Thorne, iii. 788). Catharine Maxwell was a daughter of Sir William Maxwell of Monreith, 3rd Bt., and Magdalen (or Magdalene) Blair, and a sister of Jane (later Duchess of Gordon) and Eglantine. In 1762, JB had said of Fordyce that he was ‘a man of estate, of good business as a banker, and good parts and a good heart’ (Journ. 6 Nov. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 106). And in 1763 JB had referred to him as ‘a sensible clever good-humoured Man’ (Journ. 13 July 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 268).

However, after Fordyce’s banking house collapsed in 1772 ‘in the wave of bankruptcies raised by the failure in London of Neale, James, Fordyce, and Down, of which John Fordyce’s kinsman Alexander Fordyce was active partner’ (Extremes, p. 221 n. 8), JB would take a different view, being ‘disgusted’ at the sight of Fordyce, a bankrupt, living in luxury while his creditors had been paid no more than a quarter of the amount due to them (Journ. 18 Mar. 1778, Extremes, p. 221; see also Journ. 19 June 1779, Laird, p. 113). 6. One of Darcy Brisbane (d. 1810), widow of Sir Walter Maxwell (1732–62) of Pollok, Bt., or Frances Colhoun (d. 1818), wife of his brother, Sir James Maxwell (1735–85) of Pollok, Bt., or Margaret Stewart (c. 1745–1816), wife of Sir William Maxwell (1739–1804) of Springkell, Bt. (Comp. Bar. iv. 313, 314 and 320; Corr. 9, p. 192 n. 29, p. 474).

Saturday 28 February Sir Robert Pringle1 & Clerk Pringle2 din’d — very comfortable. At 6 with Miss –––– in3 varying humour [ — ] She upbraided you — allmost would give up concert. Talk’d of expence offending you. Parted angry with you — Met ––––[.]4 [A]larm. You supt Lady Betty’s with Grange, Dr. Gregory, Arbuthnot5 & his Ladies6 — Pleasant, but you was a little drowsy. 1. Sir Robert Pringle (c. 1690–1779) of Stichill (or Stichell) (in Roxburghshire), 3rd Bt. (Comp. Bar. iv. 319). ‘The Pringles of Stichill were an ancient Scottish family who possessed considerable property in the counties of Roxburgh and Berwick’ (Namier and Brooke, iii. 332, s.v. James Pringle). Eldest brother of Sir John Pringle (for whom, see p. 270–71 n. 3) (Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed., p. 1945). 2. James Pringle of Bowland (d. 1776), W.S. (admitted 14 July 1735), Principal Clerk of Session 1748–76 (W.S. Register, p. 257). Son of James Pringle of Torwoodlee. Brother-in-law of Sir Robert, whose wife, Katherine Pringle (d. 1745), was his sister (Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed., p. 1945).

3. MS. ‘in’ interlined. 4. Pottle and Brady speculated that this may have been Lord Auchinleck (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 33 n. 3, McGraw-Hill p. 31 n. 8). In his journal entry for 2 Mar., JB records that his father ‘has been displeased’. 5. Probably Robert Arbuthnot (1728– 1803), 2nd of Haddo-Rattray (an estate in Aberdeenshire). ‘He succeeded his father in the estate of Haddo-Rattray . . . in 1756, receiving a charter of confirmation . . . from the Earl of Erroll in his favour, dated 2nd March, 1767’ (Arbuthnot, p. 289). He ‘was born in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, where he established himself as a merchant and agent for the British Linen Bank, of which

125

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 125

27/02/23 6:13 PM

28 february 1767 he later became a director (1767–70)’. However, ‘his business [the banking firm of Arbuthnot and Guthrie (Arbuthnot, p. 290)] collapsed with the failure of the Ayr Bank [Douglas, Heron and Co.] in 1772’ (Oxford DNB, s.v. ‘Select Society’). In that year, as a consequence, ‘he sold Haddo to Alexander Farquharson [d. 1787 (Corr. 10, p. lxxxiii n. 65)], accountant in Edinburgh’ (Arbuthnot, p. 289). He was a member of the Select Society of Edinburgh and ‘probably moved to Edinburgh about the time he joined’ (Oxford DNB, s.v. ‘Select Society’). JB, on 15 Aug. 1773, at his Edinburgh home before the tour of the Highlands and Hebrides, would introduce SJ to ‘Mr. Robert Arbuthnot, a relation of the celebrated Dr. Arbuthnot [John Arbuthnot (1667–1735)], and a man of literature and taste. To him we were obliged for a previous recommendation which secured us a very agreeable reception at St. Andrews, and which Dr. Johnson in his Journey ascribes to “some invisible friend”’ (Hebrides, p. 16). In a letter to AE of 23 July 1762, accompanying a set of books JB was sending him to read, JB

included ‘Spenser’s Fairy Queen, which I had from Mr. Arbuthnot’ (Corr. 9, p. 305). He was a close friend of JB’s own close friend and banker, Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo (Corr. 10, p. cii), and a friend and patron of James Beattie (1735–1803), the Scottish poet and philosopher (Oxford DNB). He ‘was for many years Secretary of the Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of the Manufactures and Fisheries of Scotland’ (Arbuthnot, p. 290). 6. His ‘ladies’ are not specified. They probably included his wife, Mary Urquhart (d. 1818 (Arbuthnot, p. 298)), whom he married in 1759, ‘daughter of John Urquhart [d. 1756 (Burke’s Landed Gentry, 6th ed., ii. 1684)] of Craigston and Cromarty’, and his wife, Jean Urqhuart (d. 1767), of the Urquhart of Meldrum family (Arbuthnot, p. 291, chart facing p. 294). He also had three sisters, one of whom, Jane (or Jean) (b. 1720 (OPRBB)), was unmarried (the two others being Mary, who in 1753 had married William Fraser of Mains of Inverugie, and Barbara (bap. 1736), who married Dr. David Wilson of Peterhead (Arbuthnot, p. 289)).

Sunday 1 March Miss Blair of Adamton1 in seat.2 Handsom stately Woman [ — ] good countenance. Din’d Dutchess of Douglas3 very hearty. Bainbridge & the two Agents.4 Before Dinner had been with Miss –––– & settled plan how to explain last night’s alarm. You & She were as fine as ever. At 6 She met you — By having lived luxuriously so much last week you was confus’d & debilitate — performed only 1. A kind of ludicrous distress. 1. Catherine Blair (c. 1749–98 (Corr. 7, Index, p. 278)) of Adamton in Monkton and Prestwick parish in the Kyle district of Ayrshire (Ayrshire, p. 269), who is frequently referred to by JB as ‘the Heiress’ (on account of being heiress to the estate of Adamton) or ‘the Princess’ (BEJ, p. 49 n. 50). She ‘was a distant cousin of JB’s, being descended from David Boswell, fifth laird of Auchinleck, through his daughter Margaret, who had married David Blair of Adam-

ton (Ominous Years, . . . Chart II, p. 375)’ (Corr. 5, p. 187 n. 2). She was the daughter of David Blair (d. 1753) of Adamton and his wife, Anne Blair (Ominous Years, Chart II, p. 375; Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 580). Lord Auchinleck, whose ward she had been after her father’s death (To WJT, 30 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 182), ‘pinned his hopes on JB’s marrying [her] . . . because she would have brought with her “some money, some land, and – this was most important – ‘influence’

126

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 126

27/02/23 6:13 PM

2 march 1767 in the shape of a good Scots vote based on an Ayrshire freehold” (Earlier Years, p. 412)’ (Corr. 7, pp. 156–57 n. 7). But these hopes would not be realized. In 1776, she would marry her cousin, Sir William Maxwell (d. 1812) of Monreith, Bt., brother of Jane, Eglantine and Catharine Maxwell (Comp. Bar. iv. 311; Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 580). 2. That is, ‘in our seat at church’. In a letter to WJT, JB said: ‘She sits in our seat at Church in Edinburgh’ (30 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 182). 3. Margaret (or ‘Peggy’) Douglas (d. 1774), Duchess of Douglas, widow of Archibald Douglas (1694–1761), 3rd Marquis of Douglas and 1st Duke of Douglas (the uncle of Archibald Douglas, the defender in the great Douglas Cause). ‘She was outspoken and forceful, but warm-hearted and witty, and was regarded as being “quite a character”. Her nephew’s success in retain-

ing his estate was to a large extent attributed to her strenuous efforts on his behalf. It was said of her that “[s]he was the last of the nobility to be attended by halberdiers when going about the country. When she visited, she left her dress behind [her] as a present” ([Scots Peer. ix. 13]). When [JB] made arrangements to visit Bothwell Castle (the principal Douglas residence) in October 1767 he asked the Duchess to let him have a “warm, orthodox room”, to which the Duchess responded that the warmest bed in the house was her own and that [JB] would be welcome to it [To JJ 9 Oct. 1767, Corr. 1, p. 233]’ (BEJ, p. 50 n. 51). 4. Bainbridge and the two agents have not been identified, but a man named Bainbridge had been a member of the Soaping Club which JB had instituted in Edinburgh in 1760 (Earlier Years, pp. 58, 471).

Monday 2 March Waterhead1 & Dunskey din’d — Except at 5 Mr. Lockhart’s,2 in all day — Drew Lord Morton’s3 Representation of 42 pages.4 Fath[er] has been displeased. This labour composed you. 1. James McAdam (1716/17–1770), Laird of Waterhead in Kirkcudbrightshire (McClure, ‘James McAdam’, p. 9). 2. Alexander Lockhart of Craighouse (1700–82), advocate (admitted 6 Nov. 1723), elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates 15 June 1764, later appointed Lord of Session (as Lord Covington) 10 Mar. 1775 (Fac. Adv., p. 125). ‘He was described as handsome and eloquent; and although no legal metaphysician, it was said that he had “a plentiful fund of common-sense to direct him” and “few men had a quicker conception or a clearer head”. He was renowned for the passion of his speeches, which often attracted a numerous audience. “He not only spoke with more fire than most of his brother advocates, but frequently accompanied his perorations with tears, and that

sometimes in cases where there seemed little room for the pathetic. But though he had vast business in the Court of Session, it was in addressing juries in the Courts of Justiciary and Exchequer that his eloquence was most powerful and formidable” [Ramsay, i. 132–33]’ (BEJ, p. 559). Williamson, p. 43, stating the position in 1773/74, gives Lockhart’s Edinburgh address as Adam’s Court. 3. James Douglas (1702–68), 14th Earl of Morton, ‘scientist (known particularly for his interest in astronomy), . . . President of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh 1737, succeeded to the Earldom 1738, created a Knight of the Order of the Thistle 1738, one of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland 1739–68, Lord Clerk Register 1760–7, trustee of the

127

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 127

27/02/23 6:13 PM

2 march 1767 British Museum, elected President of the Royal Society 1764’ (LPJB 2, p. 398 n. 44. See also Oxford DNB; Scots Peer. vi. 381– 82; Comp. Peer. ix. 299). 4. This Representation is not mentioned in the Consultation Book, and no papers relating to the case have been traced. JB is known to have acted for the Earl of Morton in at least two other later cases, one being an action against Hugh Baillie of Monkton, advocate (admitted 5 Feb. 1717, d. 1776 (Fac. Adv., p. 8)), for

reduction, improbation and declarator in respect of an alleged obligation, in which JB would obtain decree (in the absence of any representation on behalf of Baillie) on 27 Nov. 1767 (Court of Session Extracted Processes, Mackenzie’s Office, 27 Nov. 1767 (NRS CS29)); the other being an action against the Heretors of Ratho, in which JB would receive instructions on 17 Feb. 1768 to appear at a hearing before Lord Gardenstone (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, p. 398).

Tuesday 3 March Din’d Earl Findlater’s.1 Father[,] President2 &c — & the Ladies3 — Formal but well. Tea Grange. Erskine there. Read part of your London Journal4 [ — ] delighted. Talk’d of your fever for Mrs. Dodds. They shewed you weakness — You saw ’twas only sudden resolution to be free — Sat till near 3. Extraord. night. 1. James Ogilvy (d. 1770), 6th Earl of Findlater and 3rd Earl of Seafield, one of the Commissioners of Customs in Scotland 1754–61, one of the Lords of Police in Scotland 1765, one of the trustees for the improvement of fisheries and manufactures in Scotland and one of the Commissioners for the Forfeited Annexed Estates. In 1749, he married Mary Murray (1720–95), second daughter of John Murray (1659/60– 1724), 1st Duke of Atholl, and his second wife, Lady Mary Ross (d. 1767) (Scots Peer. i. 478–80, 485 and 487, iv. 39–40). ‘He was an enthusiastic agriculturist, and practically transformed the face of his territories’ (ibid., iv. 39). 2. Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session. 3. Presumably, the Lord President’s wife, Jean, and the Earl of Findlater’s wife, Mary.

4. That is, the journal from 15 Nov. 1762 to 4 Aug. 1763. That journal had been sent by JB to JJ, ‘usually in weekly instalments, with accompanying letters, several of which show [JB’s] great concern that [JJ] attend to the manuscript’s care and preservation. “You must lay it by carefully in the full Quarto size” [6 Dec. 1762, Corr. 1, p. 26]. “Let it be carefully deposited at full quarto size and kept clean and safe. Perhaps at the year’s end, we may think of binding it up” [21 Dec. 1762, Corr. 1, p. 33]’ (LJ 1762–63, p. xix). Although JB’s letter of 21 Dec. 1762 to JJ said ‘I must insist that no Mortal see a word of it’ (Corr. 1, p. 33), this entry shows that JB shared part of the journal with AE as well. He had shared some of it with AE in London: ‘I had now & then mentioned my journal to him. I read him a little of it, this evening’ (6 Feb. 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 130).

Wednesday 4 March Was so much hurt to hear scandal of Miss –––– would not visit her — was on rack.1 Craigengillan[,] young Fullarton2 &c dined. 128

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 128

27/02/23 6:13 PM

5 march 1767 1. Writing on 4 Mar., JB had informed WJT that he was ‘uneasy’ about Mrs. Dodds. ‘Furnishing a house & maintaining her with a maid will cost me a great deal of money. And it is too like marriage or too much a settled plan of licentiousness. But what can I do? I have allready taken the house & the Lady has agreed to go into it at Whitsunday [that is, the legal term day of 15 May]. I cannot in honour draw back. Besides, in no other way can I have her. But I have had more intelligence of her former intrigues. I am hurt to think of them. I cry “Damn her lewd minx” [Othello III, iii, 476]. I am jealous . . . How am I tormented because my Charmer has formerly loved others? I am disgusted to think of it. My lively imagination often represents her former lovers in actual enjoyment of her. My Desire fails, I am unfit for love. Besides She is illbred, quite a rompish girl. She debases my dignity. She has no refinement. But she is very handsom, very lively and admirably formed for amourous dalliance . . . I wish I could get off; and yet how aukward would it be!’ (To WJT, 1 Feb.–8 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 166). As Pottle observes: ‘There was so much change and counter-change in the arrangements for the house that it is not clear where the one finally rented was, or indeed whether Mrs. Dodds ever really occupied it.’ Pottle goes on to speculate that the house JB ‘finally took was not that in Borthwick’s Close but the one of unspecified location which Mrs. Dodds had engaged’ (Earlier Years, p. 537). 2. William Fullarton (1754–1808) of Fullarton in Ayrshire. Son of William

Fullarton (d. 1758 (Namier and Brooke, ii. 475)) of Fullarton and his wife, Barbara Blair (see Journ. 15 June 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 223, McGraw-Hill p. 209). He was served heir to his father in 1759, and at the time of this entry, was thirteen years old. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, and after travelling on a grand tour from 1769 to 1771 would be appointed secretary to the British Embassy in Paris (1775), elected M.P. for Plympton Erle (1779), appointed Lt.-Col. of the 98th Regt. of Foot 29 May 1780 (Army List, 1780, pp. 13 and 175 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/30)), which regiment was raised by him on his estate, appointed Col. in the army of the East India Company (1782), elected M.P. for Haddington Burghs (1787), M.P. for Horsham (1793), M.P. for Ayrshire (1796), and appointed first commissioner to Trinidad (1802). During his period in India he had a distinguished military career, leading several successful campaigns. He was the author of several works, including A View of the English Interests in India (1787), General View of the Agriculture of the County of Ayr (1793) and Statement, Letters and Documents, Respecting the Affairs of Trinidad (1804). He has been described as benevolent, humanitarian, highly cultivated and amiable (Oxford DNB; Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 468–70; Namier and Brooke, ii. 475). After Fullarton dined at JB’s house on one occasion, JB recorded that Fullarton ‘drank nothing at all hardly’ (Journ. 14 July 1774, Defence, Heinemann p. 237, McGraw-Hill p. 226).

Thursday 5 March Had message from Miss ––––[.] [W]ent to her — Could not conceal. Was black & dreary. She was much affected — you begged of her to have patience. You was unhappy — but you would not tell why. Supt Lord Coalston’s1 [ — ] Some young Lawyers there & Miss Nisbet of Dirleton[,]2 a most charming creature did not she speak too broad. Her mother a genteel amiable Woman3 — You was much in spirits — you consented to sing your Hamilton Song.4 You was asked about the Prison5 &c. You was well understood. 129

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 129

27/02/23 6:13 PM

5 march 1767 1. George Brown (d. 1776), Lord Coalston, admitted advocate 31 Jan. 1734, sheriff-depute of Forfarshire 1748–53, appointed Lord of Session 18 Dec. 1756, Lord Commissioner of Justiciary 18 Jan. 1765 (Fac. Adv., p. 21; College of Justice, p. 522). Lord Coalston’s Edinburgh residence was a mansion on the Castle Hill (BEJ, p. 50 n. 53; Williamson, front matter). Fatherin-law of Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, who had married his daughter Anne (as his first wife) in 1763 (Fac. Adv., p. 49). 2. Mary Nisbet (b. 1750 (OPRBB)), daughter of William Nisbet of Dirleton (1721–83 (OPRBB and OPRDB)) and his wife, Mary Hamilton (for whom, see following note). In 1779 (OPRBM), she would marry Maj. William Hay (d. 1781 (OPRDB)), and in 1788, as her second husband, Walter Campbell of Shawfield (for whom, see p. 228 n. 2) (Fac. Adv., p. 31). 3. Mary (Hamilton) Nisbet (1727– 97), wife of William Nisbet of Dirleton (for whom, see preceding note). She was the wealthy daughter and heir of Alexander Hamilton (1689–1758) of Dechmont and Pencaitland, W.S. (admitted 6 Nov. 1711

(W.S. Register, p. 137)), and his wife, Mary Kinloch (d. 1772), eldest daughter of Sir Francis Kinloch (1676–1747), 3rd Bt. of Gilmerton, and Mary Rocheid (d. 1749)) (Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed., pp. 1385–86). Her father had been served heir to his brother, John Hamilton (1688–1724), in the lands and barony of Pencaitland, including those of Nisbet, in Haddingtonshire. She would succeed also to the estates of Biel and Presmennan of her cousin, James Hamilton, 5th Lord Belhaven and Stenton (d. 1777), advocate (admitted 23 July 1728), Assistant Solicitor to the Boards of Customs and Excise 1733, sheriff-depute of Haddingtonshire 1747 (Fac. Adv., p. 95; Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed., p. 258; Scots Peer. ii. 47; ). Her sons William Nisbet (1747–1822) and John Nisbet (later Hamilton) (1751–1804) would become Members of Parliament. In 1782, John Nisbet would marry Janet Dundas, daughter of Robert Dundas of Arniston and his second wife, Jean Grant (Thorne, iv. 135, 672). 4. JB’s song The Hamilton Cause. 5. That is, the Tolbooth of Edinburgh.

[Four pages, containing the entries for 6 to 10 March and the beginning of the entry for 11 March, are missing. However, writing on 8 March, JB gave WJT an account of his last three days: After tormenting myself with reflecting on my Charmer’s former loves & ruminating on parting with her, I went to her. I could not conceal my being distrest. I told her I was very unhappy but I would not tell her why. She took this very seriously & was so much affected that She went next morning & gave up our House. I went in the afternoon & secured the house, & then drank tea with her. She was much agitated. She said She was determined to go & board herself in the north of England & that I used her very ill. I expostulated with her. I was sometimes resolved to let her go, & sometimes my heart was like to burst within me. I held her dear hand. Her eyes were full of passion. I took her in my arms. I told her what made me miserable. She was pleased to find it was nothing worse. She had imagined that I was suspicious of her fidelity & she thought that very ungenerous in me, 130

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 130

27/02/23 6:13 PM

8 march 1767 considering her behaviour. She said I should not mind her faults before I knew her, since her conduct was now most circumspect. We renewed our fondness. She owned She loved me more than She had ever done her Husband. All was again well. She said She did not reproach me with my former follies & we should be on an equal footing. My mind all at once felt a spring. I agreed with her. I embraced her with transport.1 That very evening, says JB, he became ‘so much intoxicated’ that I went to a low house in one of the Alleys in Edinburgh where I knew a common Girl lodged & like a brute as I was I lay all night with her. I had still so much reason left as not to dive into the bottom of the deep.2 But I gratified my coarse desires by tumbling about on the brink of destruction. Next morning I was like a man ordered for ignominious Execution. But by noon I was worse; for I discovered that some infection had reached me.3 Was not this dreadfull. I had an assignation in the evening with my Charmer. How lucky was it that I knew my misfortune in time. I might have polluted her sweet Body. Bless me! what a risque! But how could I tell her my shocking Story? I took courage. I told how drunk I had been.4 I told the consequences. I lay down & kist her feet. I said I was unworthy of any other favour . . . She bid me rise; She took me by the hand. She said she forgave me. She kist me. She gently upbraided me for entertaining any unfavourable ideas of her. She bid me take great care of myself & in time coming never drink upon any account . . . [A]ll the time Her beauty enchanted me more than ever.5]

1. To WJT, 1 Feb.–8 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, pp. 167–68. 2. 1 Henry IV, I, iii, 203. 3. JB was suffering from acute gonorrhoea, but the development of acute gonorrhoea ‘within twelve hours or less from the time of exposure is contrary to all medical testimony. He seems not to have taken medical advice for several days [he would see Peter Adie, surgeon in Edinburgh (Journ. 17 Mar.), and Dr. Daniel Johnston of Cumnock (Journ. 28 Mar.)], and may perhaps have mistaken for gonorrhoea some other inflammation which was duly succeeded or reinforced by gonorrhoea, but it seems much more likely . . .

that the cure of his second bout of the disease [in 1760] had not been complete, and that on the present occasion he had raised a chronic latent infection to the acute stage by charging his blood with alcohol and indulging repeatedly in a rough and irritating mode of relief’ (Earlier Years, p. 320). 4. Until JB became an advocate he was, ‘by any standards, abstemious in wine’, but the members of the Faculty of Advocates ‘were a hard-drinking lot, and he carelessly adopted hard drinking along with his other professional habits’ (ibid.). 5. To WJT, 1 Feb.–8 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 168.

131

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 131

27/02/23 6:13 PM

11 march 1767

Wednesday 11 March [ . . . ] a kind of gloom to think this was the last day of the Session.1 You drank tea at Mr. Alexr. Tait’s.2 He was not in. You had for company Mrs. Tait[,]3 Mrs. & Miss Blair.4 You was quite easy. You lik’d Miss B. more & more, without any fever. Saw Miss –––– a little. 1. That is, the winter session of the Court of Session, which was from 12 Nov. to 11 Mar. 2. Alexander Tait (d. 1781), W.S. (admitted 9 July 1756), Principal Clerk of Session 1760–81 (W.S. Register, p. 314). Williamson, p. 76, stating the position in 1773/74, gives his address as Argyle Square, all of which would later be removed to make way for the present Chambers Street. This square was ‘an open area of 150 feet long, by the same in breadth, including the front gardens of the houses on the north side. The houses were all massive, convenient, and not

inelegant, and in some instances, three storeys in height’ (Cassell’s Edinburgh, ii. 271). 3. Janet (Blair) (d. 1805), third daughter of William Scott Blair (1682–?) of Blair (in the parish of Dalry, Ayrshire), advocate (admitted 19 July 1706), and his wife, Magdalene Blair (W.S. Register, p. 314, s.v. Alexander Tait; Fac. Adv., p. 17; Ayr and Wigton, III. i. 167–68). 4. Catherine Blair of Adamton and her mother, Anne (Blair), second wife of David Blair of Adamton (Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 580). Janet Blair (Mrs. Tait) is a younger sister of Anne, thus Catherine Blair’s aunt.

Thursday 12 March (Fastday.)1 Captain James Webster called before you was up. Quite Gibraltar2 — Barracks — look’d at the Chronicle3 — was gay — went — adieu.4 You was in all day.5 1. This day is not recorded as being a fast-day in Un. Scots Alm., 1767. JB is perhaps referring (facetiously) to his confinement for illness, as he needs to be on a light diet. On later occasions, when fearing that he had contracted venereal disease again, he would record avoiding supper and being very abstemious with wine (see, e.g., Journ. 14, 15 and 16 Apr. 1782, Laird, pp. 436–37). 2. Webster’s regiment, the 33rd Regt. of Foot, was sent to the garrison on Minorca in 1764 and would not return to Britain until 1770 (Lee, pp. 86–87). (Webster was evidently on leave from his regiment (Corr. 6, p. 161 n. 6).) ‘Cases were known where regiments that had been sent to Gibraltar or to the West Indies . . . had not been relieved for fifty years . . . Garrison life in Minorca was deadly dull at the best, and it was an immense relief when the 33rd were

called back’ (Lee, p. 87). AE’s regiment, the 24th Regt. of Foot, had served in Gibraltar in 1760 (Corr. 9, p. 73 n. 28). 3. Lond. Chron. It is not possible to say which precise issue of Lond. Chron. JB looked at, but his gaiety may have arisen from seeing one or more of his own recent contributions, possibly his report on the riot in the Edinburgh Theatre, in the issue of 14–17 Feb. (Facts and Inventions, pp. 4–6). 4. This seems to mean that JB went to bid ‘adieu’ to Mrs. Dodds. But, as noted in the next entry, he would receive a card from her the next day, and would visit again. It appears that a plan by Mrs. Dodds to depart for Moffat at this time gets deferred to a later date, 17 Mar. (see entry for 16 Mar. below). 5. MS. Indecipherable words after ‘all day’ scored off with a modern pen.

132

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 132

27/02/23 6:13 PM

14 march 1767

Friday 13 March Had a kind card from Miss ––––[.] [W]ent to her & stayed from 12 to 2. Sherrif Pringle,1 Pilrig[,]2 Mr. W. Wilson dined[.] [M]ost comfortable, if you had not been ill. You took chair3 & went & drank tea at Marquis of Lothian’s4 very agreably. Then Sir John Cunninghame’s5 — fine ideas. Comfortable too. Then Miss ––––. 1. Walter Pringle (d. 1769), advocate (admitted 17 July 1722), appointed sheriff-depute of Roxburghshire 1754 (Fac. Adv., p. 175). Brother of Sir Robert Pringle of Stichill (Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed., p. 1945). 2. James Balfour of Pilrig (1705–95), advocate (admitted 17 Nov. 1730), sheriff-depute substitute Edinburgh 1748–65, appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy at University of Edinburgh 1754, Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations 1764–79, Treasurer of the Faculty of Advocates 1739–79 (Fac. Adv., p. 10; Oxford DNB). Balfour was the author of A Delineation of the Nature and Obligation of Morality. With Reflexions upon Mr. Hume’s Book, intitled, ‘An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals’ (1753), Philosophical Essays (1768) and Philosophical Dissertations (1782). JB enjoyed the Philosophical Essays – particularly the third essay, on liberty and necessity (see Journ. 15 Aug. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 273, McGraw-Hill p. 257). A copy of the Philosophical Essays, presumably the copy which was given to him by the author (Journ. 15 Aug. 1769), is listed in JB’s ‘Handlist’ (c. 1771) of the books in his

Edinburgh townhouse in James’s Court (Boswell’s Books, #237, p. 113). 3. That is, a sedan chair. These were carried by ‘chairmen’, whose usual attire was ‘a long blue coat with brass buttons, knee-breeches, shoes with buckles, and a three-cornered hat’ (Jamieson, ‘Sedan Chair in Edinburgh’, p. 183). 4. William Ker (d. 1767), 3rd Marquis of Lothian, elected one of the Scottish representative peers 1731, 1734, 1741, 1747 and 1754, Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1732–38, knighted (Order of the Thistle) 1734, Lord Clerk Register of Scotland 1739–56 (Scots Peer. v. 480). His residence was the ‘small but magnificently finished town mansion’ known as Lothian House (or ‘Lothian Hut’), situated off the south side of the Canongate near the Abbey Close. It had been built by the Marquis in 1750 and it was in this house that he would die on 28 July 1767 (Cassell’s Edinburgh, ii. 38–39). The Marquis was ‘much addicted to debauchery’ (Carlyle, p. 18). 5. Sir John Cuningham (c. 1696– 1777) of Caprington (in Riccarton parish, Ayrshire), Bt. (Burke’s LGS, p. 261; Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 650).

Saturday 14 March Tea Miss ––––[.] [P]rovok’d her with old stories. Grange had been with you in the forenoon & insisted you had no morals. You was shocked — You saw Miss –––– had no sentiment. You had sore conflict. But you resolved to try one winter — to enjoy fully so strong a passion. You then fancied you could inspire her with finer feelings. You grew fond. Her eyes look’d like precious stones. Some delirium seised you. She seemed an angel. 133

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 133

27/02/23 6:13 PM

15 march 1767

Sunday 15 March Had message from Miss ––––[.] [S]he was to set out next day. Was in, quiet all this day. Captain Erskine & Houstoun Stewart1 drank tea with you. Houstoun was dissipated as ever. You felt calm superiority; but not to shock him you assumed dissipation a little — you had wrote earnestly to Miss ––––. She came at 8 & sat a while with you. It was vastly kind. 1. Houston Stewart (1741–86 (Corr. 9, p. 192 n. 30)) was the second son of Sir Michael Stewart (1712–96) of Blackhall, Bt., advocate (admitted 23 July 1735), and Helen Houston (d. 1746) (Fac. Adv., p. 201). On succeeding to the entailed estate of Carnock in Stirlingshire in 1752, following the death of his maternal uncle, Sir John Houston, he had assumed the additional surname of Nicolson, although he continued also (as here) to be referred to as ‘Stewart’. On 19 Mar. 1765, he had married Margaret Porterfield, daughter of Boyd Porterfield of that ilk (d. 1794) and Christian Cunyngham (Scots Mag. 1786, xlviii, 208; Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed., p. 2226, s.v. ‘Shaw-Stewart’; Comp. Bar. iv. 261; Ancestry, Jessup-Donovan Family Tree). They would divorce on the grounds of her adultery, after a lengthy legal process initiated in the commissary court of Edinburgh in Dec. 1769, ending when the commissaries issued their final decreet in Aug. 1771, in a case notable for arguments about the admissibility of testimony from an enslaved African person, Latchemo, employed as a servant on the Springkell estate, home of Stewart’s brother-in-law, where the adultery allegedly took place (see Houston Stewart Nicolson v. Mrs Stewart Nicolson, reported in Faculty Decisions, Vol. 5, 1769–72, pp. 158–63; Cairns, ‘Slavery and the Roman Law of Evidence in Eighteenth-Century Scotland’, pp. 608–16; Alienated Affections, pp. 174–79).   In the late 1750s and early 1760s Stewart had been part of JB’s circle of friends that included AE. In early 1762, after dining at Sir Michael Stewart’s, JB had supped with Stewart at Thom’s tavern, at the lower end of the West Bow in Edinburgh

(Journ. 3 Jan.–14 Feb. 1762 (Yale MS. J 1.2)). In a letter of 22 Jan. 1762, JB had written to AE of a ball held at the Abbey of Holyroodhouse, where he danced with Stewart’s sister, Margaret (‘Peggy’) Stewart (Corr. 9, pp. 189, 192 n. 29), one of a number of young women whom in these years he fleetingly considered as marital possibilities (Corr. 6, pp. 69–77, 91–95; Corr. 1, pp. 95–96 n. 10, 111–15). In Mar. 1764 she married Sir William Maxwell of Springkell, Bt., JB’s first cousin once removed (Corr. 1, p. 166 n. 11). In his letter of 22 Jan. 1762, JB wrote to AE of Stewart: ‘He is as good and as clever and as fond of me and as fond of you as formerly’ (Corr. 9, p. 189). Like JB, AE and GD, he had contributed to Donaldson’s Collection Vol. II — ‘The Bragiad, a poem’, a mock-epic on the card game Brag (pp. 186–92). Like JB, he had a lively interest in the theatre in Edinburgh, to which he would contribute prologues, and in which in fact he would go on to earn some fame, appearing as an amateur actor. In 1772, the Lond. Mag. published a ‘PROLOGUE, Written and spoken by HoustonStewart Nicolson Esq; on his attempting the Character of Richard III. at Greenock’, a role he acted ‘On a bet with . . . his father, of a hog-shead [sic] of wine’ (Lond. Mag. May 1772, xli. 244–45). In 1773, in Edinburgh, he would reprise his role as Richard III (to help raise funds for the rebuilding of the Carron Bridge). He became known as ‘Edinburgh’s amateur’. His other parts included Chamont in Thomas Otway’s The Orphan (1782) and Pierre in Otway’s Venice Preserv’d (1783). In the last months of his life, he played Hamlet and Richard III (Dibdin, pp. 161, 183, 185–86, 196).

134

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 134

27/02/23 6:13 PM

16 march 1767  His younger brother, Archibald Stewart (d. 1779), merchant in Rotterdam (later a planter in Tobago, where he lost his life), had been helpful to JB on his arrival there on 7 Aug. 1763 after he had left London reluctantly to begin law studies in Utrecht. Stewart, though ‘I was not much acquainted with him’, ‘insisted that I should stay in his house, where I met with every civility’; and again later, when feeling ‘wretched’ and ‘melancholy’ in Utrecht, JB ‘returned to Rotterdam in a condition that I shudder to recollect. I sent for Stewart,’ who ‘behaved like a humane and a generous Man; took me to his house, and did every thing in his power to amuse me’ (To JJ, 23 Sept. 1763, Corr. 1, pp. 111–12 and n. 1). JB would remember the generosity some eight and a half years later: breakfasting with ‘Archie Stewart’ in London, he recalled the time ‘when he entertained me most kindly and humanely at his house in Rotterdam’ (Journ. 30 Mar. 1772, Defence, Heinemann p. 83, McGraw-Hill p. 80).   JB had, before the time of this meeting, come to associate Houston Stewart, described here as ‘dissipated as ever’, with

his own roistering youth, from which he would seek to distance himself. On 29 Apr. 1763, in London, he had recorded that AE and he ‘dined with Houstoun Stewart. We were too extravagant in the ludicrous style & I was not happy’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 208). While in Utrecht, he had urged himself to ‘Take care. Be firm and shun falling back to Houston Stewart’ (Mem. 16 May 1764, Holland, Heinemann p. 238, McGraw-Hill pp. 244–45). Later, in Germany, he had written in similar vein in a Memorandum dated 28 July 1764, ‘This day learn a little restraint. Be grave and gay & not Houst Stewart’ (Journ. 1, p. 51), and in a journal entry several weeks later, ‘I was still unruly. Something of Houstoun Stewart. Let me take care’ (8 Sept. 1764, Journ. 1, p. 100). See also JB’s journal entry for 24 Feb. 1768 below. In a much later journal entry, 3 Aug. 1782, JB would report that while dining with others at Newington, ‘Nicolson entertained me with his usual sallies and quotations from plays. I was much more sedate than when I formerly associated with him. He considered me as a departed genius and said, “I respect your memory”’ (Laird, pp. 467–68).

Monday 16 March You called on Miss –––– & past a great part of the forenoon, as she was not to go till Tuesday. You again spoke of old stories. She was fretted. You were both very uneasy. You saw her temper such that no eloquence could touch her. But you was her slave. Returned at five to tea. She was young & vivacious. What a temperament! You gave word in honour you’d never again allow her to be ill spoken of by G1 in your presence.2 You were like man & wife. Called Miss Aggie3 Johnston4 at Miss Cochrane and Chalmers’s.5 Was calm — Went to Lady Betty’s — She had been ill — You was so — appeared invalid — Was restless, having promised to Miss –––– to return. You talked much of Miss –––– & Lady Betty & the Captain rated you about her. At eleven you went to her. You was let softly in. She was quite kind — But the recollection of her former tricks galled you; for your heart was affected. You had been with Lord Monboddo & talked of your flame. He quoted Ulysses & Circe[:] Sub domina meretrice vixisset turpis et excors.6 You saw how lightly passions appear to those not immediatly affected by them; for even to yourself will this afterwards seem light. You was all resigned to sweet Miss ––––. You chaced away all reflection. You drank in instant delight. You sat till one & parted with great fondness in hopes of meeting7 — Home — Father still up. Lady Betty bore the blame of late hours.8 135

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 135

27/02/23 6:13 PM

16 march 1767 1. That is, JJ. 2. MS. ‘you’d never again allow her to be ill spoken of by G in your presence’ deleted. The words ‘you’d never again allow her to be’, which are particularly difficult to decipher, are as transcribed in BP, vii. 112. 3. MS. ‘aggie’. 4. Possibly JJ’s sister Agnes (Corr. 1, Appendix I, p. 329). 5. Miss Cochrane and Miss Chalmers traded as milliners and mantua-makers in Milne’s Square (Williamson, p. 19). 6. ‘He would have lived filthy and stupid ruled by a whore’ (Horace, Epistles, I. ii. 25, ‘vixisset’ for ‘fuisset’) (Corr. 6, p. 183 n. 11). ‘Circe was the enchantress of Greek and Roman legend who detained Ulysses on the island of Aeaea, took him

as her lover and turned his men into swine’ (BEJ, p. 52 n. 62). JB would use Monboddo’s learned and apposite allusion (without attribution) in writing on 30 Mar. to WJT about his escaping the entanglements with Mrs. Dodds (Corr. 6, p. 181). 7. This is JB’s last meeting with Mrs. Dodds (until the affair resumes later in the year (see Introduction, p. 33)). She was to leave for Moffat, probably the next day, and he for Auchinleck on 19 Mar. He would tell WJT, writing from Auchinleck on 30 Mar., ‘my Circe went to Moffat just after I wrote to you last’ (Corr. 6, p. 181). 8. Meaning that JB, concealing from his father the real reason for his late return home (his visit to Mrs. Dodds, which lasted till 1 a.m.), blamed it on his visit to the ailing Lady Betty.

Tuesday 17 March Feverish. Mark Anthony1 — Quite given up to violent love. Saw Grange below pillars.2 Called Lady Preston3 at Mrs. Webster’s;4 then Miss G ––––5 & gave money for house &c. Had laboured hard all winter; but now passion made you at once give up the fruits of your labour, which you had carefully collected.6 You also called Doctor’s7 — He not in. Went with Father & Mr. Webster in coach to marquis of Lothian’s, to dinner.8 Mr. Adie there9 — easy[,] comfortable & good things. Look’d at Lothian Hut.10 Pleased with it. Tea Madame Scott.11 Honest Dupont12 in Slippers. M. Paris a french Refugee13 there: a secondrate man — very keen against the Pope &c. You had not heard controversy this age — wondered — could not have believed him in earnest had you not once been in earnest yourself — Had fine inward reflections, how you used to be here long ago.14 Mr. Adie at night consulted with you as to Evil.15 1. That is, JB, with his feverish passion for Mrs. Dodds, felt like Mark Antony in his passion for Cleopatra. 2. That is, at a public house under the pillars in the Parliament Close. JB would record another meeting in the same establishment in 1780: ‘At eight o’clock I had a party which I had long projected – a social meeting in the public house under the pillars in the Parliament Close, where Dr. Pitcairne used to take his bottle every evening. It was called the graping office, from grop-

ing in the dark . . . Grange had engaged for us the very room where the Doctor sat. It was underground from the pillars, very lowroofed, and had no window’ (Journ. 27 Jan. 1780, Laird, p. 174). Archibald Pitcairne (1652–1713), a physician in Edinburgh and a poet (Oxford DNB), was maternal grandfather of the Erskines, being the father of Janet (Pitcairn), Dowager Countess of Kellie. ‘“The tavern celebrated by . . . Pitcairne in his Latin lyric on the Edinburgh inns under the name of Greppa was more

136

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 136

27/02/23 6:13 PM

17 march 1767 colloquially dubbed the ‘Greping-office’ by the wits who felt their way down its dark stairs and through its underground passages.” Situated beneath the piazza (the arcade) at the north-east corner of the Parliament Close, it was “a much-frequented and fashionable resort in the early eighteenth century and there, too, of all places, doctors were wont to hold consulting hours for their patients” [Stuart, p. 40]’ (BEJ, p. 371 n. 24). 3. Anne (Cochrane) (d. 1779), daughter of Lady Mary Cochrane (elder daughter of Alexander Bruce, 2nd Earl of Kincardine) and William Cochrane of Ochiltree (d. after 1716), and married to Sir George Preston of Valleyfield (for whom, see p. 210 n. 3) (Ominous Years, Chart V, p. 378; Comp. Bar. ii. 426). She was the aunt of JB’s mother, Euphemia Erskine (c. 1718–66), Lord Auchinleck’s first wife, who had been brought up in Culross (a royal burgh situated on the north shore of the Firth of Forth). Euphemia Erskine ‘grew up in great seclusion in the Colonel’s Close [now known as Culross Palace], watched over by her formidable grandmother [Lady Mary Cochrane] in Culross Abbey House up the hill, and her aunt, Lady Preston, in Valleyfield House nearby’ (Earlier Years, p. 12). 4. Perhaps JB’s pen slipped and he meant ‘Mr. Webster’s’, for the Rev. Alexander Webster’s wife, Mary (Erskine), had died on 28 Nov. 1766 (see p. 76 n. 7). Alexander Webster lived in a close off the south side of the Castle Hill which came to be known as Webster’s Close (Place Names of Edinburgh, p. 625). 5. An Edinburgh landlady (or ‘roomsetter’). Williamson, p. 32, lists three possible candidates: Miss Graham in Carrubber’s Close; Miss Gilchrist, also in Carrubber’s Close; and Miss Ged in Paterson’s Court. 6. JB could afford to do this as he had an allowance of £200 a year from his father (Journ. 11 Nov. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 110). 7. JB’s uncle, John Boswell. JB may have wished to consult him about his venereal infection.

8. At Lothian House (for which, see p. 133 n. 4). The Marquis of Lothian and Lord Auchinleck were well known to each other. David Boswell had recently written to JB, ‘you know what a regard the Marquis has for my Father’ (Yale MS. C 482, 10 Sept. 1766). 9. Peter Adie (d. 1769), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1751 (Royal College of Surgeons, No. 227), and admitted Burgess and Guild Brother of Edinburgh on 8 May of that year (REBGB, 1701–1760, p. 1), one of four surgeons in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh who had been appointed with effect from 1 Aug. 1766 (Turner, p. 122), and evidently a friend of, and on occasion a medical consultant for, the Boswell family (see n. 15, below). JB’s brother David had sought advice from him recently on JB’s behalf after JB suffered recurrences of the ‘ague’ (malaria) he had contracted while in Corsica (Journ. 28 Oct. 1765, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 202, McGraw-Hill p. 190; From Bruce, 19 July 1766, Corr. 8, pp. 7–8 and n. 1). JJ wrote of JB’s ‘ten days Confinement’ for the illness (25 July 1766, Corr. 1, p. 220). David wrote from Edinburgh to JB at Auchinleck on 23 Aug. 1766 that ‘I have received yours [not reported] and I am extremely sorry to hear of your Ague, I hope you have now got quite the better of it, and are able to walk about’ (Yale MS. C 478). A week later, he wrote to JB (then in Glasgow): ‘I saw Mr. Edie [sic] today, he told me you should make use of the Bark very much, & not in Tincture, but the solid Bark’ (30 Aug. 1766, Yale MS. C 480). On 7 Oct. 1766, he wrote to JB (again at Auchinleck): ‘It gives me much pain to hear you have had a return of the Ague, I hope by this time it has left you, I approve very much of your delaying to take the Bark, but I think after the Fit has left you you ought to take the Bark by way of a preservative, this Mr Edie is very much for’ (Yale MS. C 485). (By ‘bark’ is meant the bark of cinchona trees, from which quinine, an eighteenth-century anti-malarial treatment, was obtained.) On 23. Oct.

137

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 137

27/02/23 6:13 PM

17 march 1767 1766, JB had written to Sir Alexander Dick from Auchinleck that ‘I have had three or four returns of the ague this Autumn.’ Evidently, he took Adie’s advice (as it had been secured, and relayed, by David), as he reported that he was ‘now quite well, and I hope a little of the Bark has braced me up beyond further danger’ (Corr. 5, p. 75). After Adie’s death on 2 Feb. 1769 (Scots Mag. Jan. 1769, xxxi. 54), JB would become one of his trustees: ‘I was this afternoon at a meeting of the late Mr. Adie’s Trustees’ (Journ. 26 July 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 257, McGraw-Hill p. 241). 10. Otherwise known as Lothian House (see p. 133 n. 4). 11. Magdalen (Le Mercier) Scott (d. 1770), a Frenchwoman, second wife (and widow) of William Scott (‘primus’) (1672– 1735), Professor of Greek (1708–29) and Moral Philosophy (1729–34) at the University of Edinburgh (Corr. 5, p. 21 n. 4; University of Edinburgh website, ). 12. Rev. Pierre Loumeau Dupont (1699–1786), Huguenot minister in Edinburgh. His father, who was also a Huguenot minister, ‘had fled from France in 1685 and established a French church in Edinburgh. Dupont studied in Geneva for seven years before succeeding his father as pastor of the French congregation in 1725; he held the post until his death, by which time his flock had virtually ceased to exist. In 1774 he [would petition] the Town Council for an augmentation of his stipend, but the petition was unsuccessful, as was his subsequent petition, drawn up by JB in 1777 (Dupont to Hailes, 21 Feb. 1777; John Hamilton to F. A. Pottle, 5 Sept. 1938). Dupont was

an old friend of Lord Auchinleck’s, and JB had known him well since childhood’ (Corr. 5, p. 21 n. 1). On 6 July 1763, Lord Auchinleck had written to JB in London, soon to leave for Holland, that Sir David Dalrymple and Dupont would provide some letters of introduction (Yale MS. C 216), and Dupont had written to Charles Pierre Chais, Minister of the French church in The Hague (Yale MS. C 1161, ?Nov. 1763). 13. François Paris, who, despite JB’s opinion of him, was charmed (according to Dupont) with JB’s conversation on this occasion at Madame Scott’s, and regretted that he could not have more of JB’s acquaintance. He was tutor to the children of William Mure (1718–76) of Caldwell, since 1761 Baron of Exchequer in Scotland, and his wife, Katherine Graham (1734–1820), daughter of James Graham (1696–1750), Lord Easdale, and his wife, Katherine Hepburn, who had two sons and four daughters (Oxford DNB, s.v. William Mure of Caldwell). Dupont described him as very learned, and said he had studied theology in the academies of Geneva, Lausanne and Leiden. In Dupont’s account, Paris had done his job well in the Mure household. For their ages, the children had good knowledge of ancient and modern history, and the girls spoke French prettily and ‘sans accent’. Paris, to Dupont’s regret, was about to accompany the parents and their two sons to London, where they were to be placed in school (From Dupont 7 Apr. 1767, Corr. 5, p. 136). 14. Evidently a reference to JB’s own earlier religious doubts and perplexities (see p. 73–74 n. 12). 15. The ‘evil’ is the attack of gonorrhoea from which JB was suffering.

Wednesday 18 March1 Found a listlessness creeping on you. Reviewed winter — wondered at the variety of business you had gone through — having made fours[c]ore & four guineas2 — Went to Lord Hales to have him examined by Lord Elliock3 in Cairncross cause.4 The other Party could not attend.5 You was hurt to find reverence for Lords 138

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 138

27/02/23 6:13 PM

18 march 1767 ceasing. You feared that Cælum ipsum6 might lose it’s dignity if you got to it. Wild idea! Can fin[i]te beings be at all compared to infinity[?] You had a tete á tete with Lord Hales. He commended you in some causes [ — ] said you had fought a good Battel: but in Warnoc’s cause you had drawn a paper with as unfair a state of the facts as Lockhart7 could have done.8 You told him of feverish passion. He bid you break off. But he seemed not rigid. Then Dr. Blair’s.9 Had not seen him of a long time. He was comfortable. Talked of Corsica. He was roused with it. Complained of sickly love. He talked of it calmly as a bad thing. Talk’d of marriage [ — ] how agreable & how suited to you. Talked of action as quite necessary. You said yes but as a remedy to distempered minds. The sound & perfect human being can sit under a spreading tree like the Spaniard playing on his Guitar [ — ] his Mistress by him & glowing with gratitude to his God. Music, Love, adoration. There is a Soul. The Doctor was struck & pleased with this warm effusion. Commissioner10 dined with you. At 5 Lady Betty’s. Comfortable tea. You was still in a fever about Miss ––––. She and the Captain shewed you what a weakness! what want of firmness and how in all such cases, a man of imagination supposed his Mistress to have virtues. Lord Kelly11 actually believed Miss Massey12 — a common Whore,13 to be a most virtuous woman, but in unhappy circumstances, & that for the first time, her heart was engaged to him. Lady B–––– talked to me as a Christian. In short, every thing was said, & the Captain recalled all the scandalous stories [ — ] Waiter & all14 [ — ] which revolted you. You resolved to be self — to break free from slavery. What strength of mind you have had this winter, to go through so much business & at the same time have so violent a Passion! You held Lady B’s hand. Owned error — said Have hope of me; & gave honour you’d never again allow yourself to fall into such a scrape. Home. David15 sat long with you. Told him fairly your situation16 (all but paradisial completion). He like a man advised you to get free. You’d ruin yourself. You would fain have indulged for one year. No, said He[,] you might acquire habit of slavery. And besides it would then be ungenerous to quit. You wavered & knew not how to determine. You saw yourself gone. You wondered how you would feel if a notorious Villain; for, from your violent passions you dreaded it’s possibility. Was stunned. Resolved firm — To bed quite agitated. 1. MS. Indecipherable words deleted at the beginning of this entry. Possibly ‘< > for < >’. 2. See p. 124 n. 7. 3. James Veitch (1712–93), Lord Elliock, admitted advocate 15 Feb. 1738, appointed sheriff-depute of Peeblesshire 1747, M.P. Dumfriesshire 1755–60, appointed Lord of Session 6 Mar. 1761 (Fac. Adv., p. 212; College of Justice, pp. 525–26). ‘Widely credited with having a first-class legal mind and being one of the finest scholars of the day’ (LPJB 1, p. 386).

4. For the Cairncross cause, see pp. 80–81 n. 2. Lord Hailes, before his elevation to the bench, had been counsel for Hugh Cairncross (who is now JB’s client), the pursuer in the action (Petition of Hugh Cairncross dated 15 Jan. 1766 (but actually 1767), page 5 (NLS APS.3.80.22; LPJB 1, p. 58)). 5. Counsel for the defenders was Henry Dundas (Consultation Book, 4 Dec. 1766, 15 Jan. 1767, 2 Feb. 1767; LPJB 1, pp. 372–73). The reason he was unavailable was presumably that the Court of Session’s

139

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 139

27/02/23 6:13 PM

18 march 1767 spring vacation had started on 12 Mar. and the summer session did not start until 12 June. 6. Heaven itself. JB is probably recalling the expression from Horace (Odes, I. iii. 38). On 7 Feb. 1794, JB would tell his son Alexander that ‘[h]is father gave him a reward . . . for every ode of Horace he got by heart, and at one time he could repeat more than forty of them, besides passages from Horace’s Epistles and Satires and from Ovid and Virgil’ (Earlier Years, pp. 24, 459). 7. That is, Alexander Lockhart. 8. In the case of Warnock v. Maxwell, in which the pursuer was Poor David Warnock (‘Poor’ signifying that he had the benefit of the Poor’s Roll (for the Poor’s Roll, see p. 78 n. 4)), tenant in the ‘Easter Town of Pollock’ (presumably a reference to the eastern part of the now forgotten village of Polloktoun (or Pollok Town) in the extensive Pollok estate in Renfrewshire, ancestral home of the Maxwell of Pollok family), and the defender was Sir James Maxwell of Pollok, Bt., JB had drafted a reclaiming petition (Consultation Book, 2 Feb. 1767; LPJB 1, p. 373; NRS CS228/W/3/7). No papers by JB relating to that case have been traced. 9. The Rev. Hugh Blair. 10. Basil Cochrane (1701–88), JB’s great-uncle, being brother of JB’s maternal grandmother, Euphemia (Cochrane) Erskine (?1693–?1721) (Ominous Years, Chart V, p. 378). He had joined the army at an early age and rose to the rank of Capt. in the 44th Regt. of Foot, in which regiment he was present at the battle of Prestonpans in 1745, and was captured at Preston. He was for a time the DeputyGovernor of the Isle of Man. In 1761, he was appointed a Commissioner of Excise in Scotland, and in 1764 he was appointed a Commissioner of Customs in Scotland (Kay, i. 384–85; Scots Peer. iii. 349; Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 148). JB remarked that he was ‘a man of great common sense and

prudence’ (Journ. 30 Oct. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 97). He was very kind to JB, ‘often serving as mediator between him and Lord Auchinleck’ (Harvest Jaunt, p. 97 n. 4). He never married, but two illegitimate children, a daughter (Elizabeth) and a son (William), are named in his will (Laird, p. 252 n. 6). 11. MS. ‘Kelly’ scored off with a modern pen. 12. ‘Miss Massey’ was apparently the mistress of Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie. No further information about her is known. 13. MS. ‘Miss Massey – a common Whore’ scored off with a modern pen. 14. ‘Waiter & all’ is unexplained. The editors of Search of a Wife took it to mean that AE was referring to an account of Mrs. Dodds that said she had lived with a waiter, and added the words ‘[her living with the]’ before ‘waiter’ (Heinemann p. 45, McGraw-Hill p. 42). 15. JB would admiringly summarize this conversation with his brother David in his letter to WJT, written from Auchinleck on 30 Mar. Noting that JJ had had ‘some influence with me’ (on the subject of his passion for Mrs. Dodds), ‘my Brother David had more. To him I discovered my weakness, my slavery, and begged his advice. He gave it me, like a Man. I gloried in him. I roused all my Spirit, & at last I was myself again’ (Corr. 6, p. 181). Apparently while on his way to Auchinleck (see p. 142 n. 5 below), JB would write David a ‘short letter’ (not reported), received on 23 Mar., to which David would reply on 25 Mar.: ‘I received your short letter on Monday morning, & the one inclosed in it was forwarded that Night; I am glad to observe, you determined to get the better of the ridiculous folly, which has taken the possession of you, be assured your mind will by degrees grow firm, & that in a few months, you will be as easy as you could wish’ (Yale MS. C 487). 16. MS. ‘situation.’.

140

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 140

27/02/23 6:13 PM

19 march 1767

Thursday 19 March Wak’d in tender anguish. What[,] shall I give her up? Your melting moments rushed on your mind. Her generosity — ah! For some seconds a real fit of delirium — tossing in your distempered mind, instant self-destruction. Bless me! is this possible? It was literally true. Got up, roused — grew better. Bad weather had kept you still in town yesterday. However set out today.1 The same family form. John Bruce[,]2 Mr. Stobie[,] Mathew Dickie[,] Bob Boswell3 all down with you to the back Stairs.4 This composed your mind. It was as it were quilted with good comfortable family ideas. Jogged on. Good conversation on Law. Din’d Livingston.5 Night Bedlay’s new house.6 Father gave you account of the Hamilton Memorial7 after supper — left it off — In your room begun letter to Miss ––––[.]8 [W]as gloomy but resolved — Considered She had not feeling to be much affected. 1. That is, for the journey to Auchinleck. 2. John Bruce, Lord Auchinleck’s major-domo at the Edinburgh family home. JB had mentioned him in a letter of 15 Feb. 1763 written from London to JJ, with a reminiscence of boyhood, characterizing him as loyal to Lord Auchinleck and something of a disciplinarian with regard to himself and his brothers: ‘O John Bruce thou surly Son of fidelity who whilst You carefully watched the interests and accurately obeyed the commands of thy beloved Master, yet thought it not unmeet to domineer over his Sons with tyrranic sway. To rule them with a rod of iron’ (Corr. 1, pp. 46–47). It seems that John Bruce was not related to James Bruce, the overseer at Auchinleck. ‘[A] begging letter to JB from John’s son John, cabinet-maker in London, 1 June 1785, [mentions] that John Bruce was later a “keeper” in the Parliament House’ (Corr. 1, p. 46 n. 7; Yale MS. C 666). 3. Robert Boswell (1746–1804), writer, later W.S. (admitted 25 Feb. 1773) (W.S. Register, p. 34). He was the elder son of JB’s uncle, Dr. John Boswell, and his wife, Anne (or Anna) Cramond (1710–77) (Ominous Years, Chart III, p. 376; Journ. 19 Feb. 1777, Extremes, p. 87; OPRBB and OPRDB). Robert Boswell instructed JB in some Court of Session proceedings (see,

e.g., Consultation Book, 3 and 13 July 1769; LPJB 2, pp. 407–08), and would frequently serve as JB’s agent, or man of business, after he became Laird of Auchinleck in 1782. 4. The reference to the ‘back Stairs’ is a reference to ‘the long flight of stone steps (also known as the “Parliament Stairs”) which descended from the south side of the Parliament Close to the Cowgate’ (BEJ, p. 54 n. 77; see also Cassell’s Edinburgh, i. 179–80, and Place Names of Edinburgh, p. 72). 5. Livingston: ‘a parish with a village of the same name near the middle of the [south-east] border of the county of Linlithgow’ (OGS, v. 529), the village being about 17 miles from Edinburgh. 6. Archibald Roberton of Bedlay (d. 1798), advocate (admitted 29 June 1748) (Fac. Adv., p. 180). His house, in Cadder parish, north Lanarkshire, near Chryston (OGS, i. 137), was called Bedlay House, but is now known as Bedlay Castle. It ‘belongs to two periods, the eastern section, with a square stair-tower projecting to the north, dating from the last quarter of the 16th century, while the west end[,] with its two round towers, was built about a hundred years later’ (RCAHMS, site number NS67SE 14). See also references to him in Journ. 18 Aug. 1774, Defence, Heinemann p. 285, McGraw-Hill p. 273; Journ. 25 Feb. 1775, Ominous Years,

141

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 141

27/02/23 6:13 PM

19 march 1767 p. 71; Journ. 29 Mar. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 106. 7. For the Hamilton Memorial, see p. 105 n. 1.

8. This letter to Mrs. Dodds, seeking to end the affair, begun here in his room at Bedlay, would be completed and sent the next day from Sornbeg (see entry for 20 Mar. and n. 5).

Friday 20 March Heavy Snow.1 Father resumed the Hamilton Memorial. Astonish’d at his memory, & how all this time He has never said a word, & yet has it so perfectly. Prodigious strong mind. Singular frame. Din’d Strathaven.2 Night Sornbeg.3 Walk’d up from Galston.4 Comfortable & easy. Reflected on the gradual course of things. Was contented. Sat up late & finished letter to Miss ––––. Sent it5 — Was as firm as if it had been a year after. 1. It had been a terrible winter. JB’s journal entry for 12 Jan. mentioned ‘monstrous deep snow’ on the road between Arniston and Edinburgh. And on 23 Jan. James Bruce, the overseer at Auchinleck, had reported to JB that there had been severe weather there. ‘The first Ten days was intense frost, and than for Several days we had a vast blowe of snow . . . The frost upon Rivers and Lochs is about Nine Inches thick’ (Corr. 8, p. 13). 2. A town in Avondale parish, Lanarkshire (OGS, vi. 409), about 50 miles from Edinburgh and about 24 miles from Auchinleck. 3. An estate immediately to the south of the town of Galston in the Kyle district of Ayrshire, about 9 miles north of Auchinleck (Armstrongs’ Map of Ayrshire). Sornbeg was one of the properties

of JB’s distant cousins, Hugh Campbell of Mayfield and Bruce Campbell (c. 1734– 1813) (later of Mayfield and Milrig (Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 528; Ayrshire, pp. 274, 306 and 313)) (Ominous Years, Chart VI, p. 379). 4. For Galston, see preceding note. 5. This letter to Mrs. Dodds, begun at Bedlay and completed here, is not reported. It may have been the one JB ‘inclosed’ with his letter to his brother David, which David received on 23 Mar. (see p. 140 n. 15 above). In his letter to WJT from Auchinleck of 30 Mar., JB would enclose both his ‘Scroll’ (draft or copy) of his letter to Mrs. Dodds, begun ‘immediatly’ after his conversation with David had ‘roused all my Spirit’, and David’s letter to him of 25 Mar., asking WJT to read and then return both to him (Corr. 6, pp. 181–82).

Saturday 21 March Left Sornbeg in the morning. As you came along, talked of œconomy. You was sensible of your want of that virtue & wanted to save yourself. Come[,] come, I see some people in this world have œconomy & some not. Very right[,] said my Father[,] but why dont they acquire it then[?] You may as well say[:]1 Some people have learning in this world & some not. Some people are thieves in this world, & some not. That argument will serve for every thing. How excellent was his reasoning! You resolved to exert your active powers. My Father has done so & is the man He is. Arrived safe at Auchinleck. Reflected on your emancipation from Circe. Enjoyed the noble Seat after the longa negotia2 of a Winter Session.3 But the evil complaint pained you.4 It was however pretty easy. 142

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 142

27/02/23 6:13 PM

22 march 1767 1. MS. ‘say. Some’. 2. ‘“Tedious business” (Horace, Odes, III. v. 53)’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 47 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 43 n. 3).

3. For the period of the Court of Session’s winter session, see p. 124 n. 7. 4. MS. ‘But the evil complaint pained you’ scored off with a modern pen. For the ‘evil complaint’, see p. 138 n. 15.

Sunday 22 March Lay a bed long & reflected comfortably on being free from Lais.1 We did not go to Church. I wrote to M. De Sommelsdyck2 a calm family letter which My Father read [ — ] I am sure [ — ] with satisfaction. We read some of old Mr. Robert Bruce’s Scots Sermons,3 and a Chapter4 of the Greek New Testament5 and a Psalm of Buchanan.6 We were very happy. We are now friends as much as my Father’s singular grave & steady temper will allow; for he has not that quick sensibility which animates me. Since the beginning of last winter He has ceased to treat me like a Boy. This evening I thought with astonishment is it really true that a Man of such variety of Genius, who has seen so much, who is in constant friendship with General Paoli, is it possible that He was all last winter the slave of a woman without one elegant quality? 1. Lais, the name of several celebrated courtesans in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries b.c., was a name commonly employed proverbially to signify a striking beauty. The name is applied by JB to Mrs. Dodds. 2. ‘François Cornelius van Aerssen (1725–93), Heer van Sommelsdyck, was JB’s distant cousin: Sommelsdyck’s greataunt Veronica [for whom, see pp. 88–89 n. 2] had married Alexander Bruce, second Earl of Kincardine, and their daughter Elizabeth married James Boswell of Auchinleck, JB’s grandfather. His death brought the Sommelsdyck branch of the van Aerssen family to an end (Adelsarchief iii. 176–77; Ominous Years, [Chart III, p. 376])’ (Corr. 5, p. 12 n. 1). Lord Auchinleck had given JB a fairly full account of, and had written warmly to JB in Utrecht of, their Dutch relations: in particular, of Sommelsdyck’s father, the ‘late Admiral Sommelsdyck [Admiral François van Aerssen van Sommelsdyck (1669–1740) (Genealogy Online)], to whose civilities I was much obliged when in Holland in the years 1727 and 1728’ (?Oct. 1763,

Holland, Heinemann p. 64, McGraw-Hill p. 66). And in a later letter, he asked JB to be ‘sure to make my best compliments to Mynheer van Somesdyke[.] I remember him very well but he wont remember me for it is 34 years since I saw him when I went to take leave of his worthy Father and Mother [Maria van Aerssen (van Wern­ hout) van Sommelsdyck (1682–1761) (Genealogy Online)] and he was then but about five years of Age’ (Yale MS. C 224, ?10 Dec. 1763). ‘JB found his [kinsman] “amiable soft genteel” when he met him in The Hague, 23 Dec. 1763 (Notes, 24 Dec. 1763)’ (Corr. 5, p. 12 n. 1). An extract from JB’s letter, which is dated 21 (not 22) Mar. and is written in French, is transcribed in Corr. 5, p. 129. The extract ‘describes various documents and objets d’art at Auchinleck pertaining to [the Countess of Kincardine] and her relatives’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 47 n. 3, McGraw-Hill p. 44 n. 5). 3. Sermons by the Rev. Robert Bruce (1554–1631), M.A. (St. Andrews, 1572), Church of Scotland minister in Edinburgh (called in 1587, and admitted in

143

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 143

27/02/23 6:13 PM

22 march 1767 1598 to the Little Kirk (or Haddo’s Hole Kirk) in the Church of St. Giles), three times elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1588, 1589 and 1592), appointed extraordinary Privy Councillor 1589. ‘Wherever he had an opportunity of preaching, great crowds attended; he preached with remarkable power, and his own life being in full accord with his preaching, the influence he attained was almost without parallel in the history of the Scottish Church’ (Fasti Scot. i. 54; see also Oxford DNB). His sermons were published as Sermons upon the Sacrament of the Lords Supper: Preached in the Kirk of Edinburgh, printed by Robert Waldegrave in Edinburgh in 1590, and Sermons Preached in the Kirk of Edinburgh, printed by Robert Waldegrave in Edinburgh in 1591. The library of Auchinleck House held copies of both (Boswell’s Books, #495 and #496, p. 137). 4. MS. ‘a Chapter’ interlined. Beneath ‘a Chapter’ a word has been deleted. It is indecipherable but is probably ‘some’. 5. It is clear from JB’s journal entry on 12 Apr. that this edition of the Greek New Testament was written in Greek and was not a translation. The inventory of the library at Auchinleck House, which would be prepared by JB’s wife, Margaret Montgomerie, in about 1784, includes several editions of the New Testament in Greek (for details, see Boswell’s Books, #3645, 3649, 3650, 3667, 3670, 3719, 3721 and 3724, pp. 384–87 and 391). JB’s own copy is listed (as ‘Novum

Testamentum Graecum . . . Glasg. 1750’, being the edition published by Robert Urie) in his ‘Handlist’ (c. 1771) of the books in his Edinburgh townhouse in James’s Court (Boswell’s Books, #3707, p. 390). JB had studied Greek under Professor Robert Hunter and, while studying at Utrecht, had been tutored in Greek by James Rose and the Rev. Robert Brown (for whom, see p. 169 n. 5). 6. George Buchanan (1506–82), Scottish ‘poet, historian and administrator’ (Oxford DNB). JB’s ‘Handlist’ (c. 1771) of the books in his Edinburgh townhouse in James’s Court lists the 1660 edition of Buchanan’s Psalmorum Davidis (written in Latin), published in London (Boswell’s Books, #520, p. 140). In a MS. note in 1763, JB wrote ‘I bought this for 2d at Greenwich when I was walking there with Mr. Samuel Johnson’ (ibid.). JB had made a pleasant excursion with SJ along the Thames to Greenwich on 30 July 1763, at which time SJ highly complimented Buchanan’s poetry, as JB would record in his journal and in the Life of Johnson (LJ 1762–63, p. 296; Life i. 460). Buchanan wrote his Latin translation of the Psalms between 1550 and 1552, during which period he was held in confinement in Portugal on a charge of heresy and, after his trial and public abjuration, detained in a monastery. This work does much to support Buchanan’s reputation of being ‘easily the leading poet of his time’ (Oxford DNB).

Monday 23 March Mr. Dun[,]1 Hallglenmuir2 &c here. I roused my mind & wrote the Introduction to my Account of Corsica. 1. The Rev. John Dun (1724–92), minister at Auchinleck. ‘Dun, from Eskdale in Dumfriesshire, was educated at Edinburgh University, chaplain in Lord Auchinleck’s Edinburgh household and JB’s

first boyhood tutor. He was ordained minister of Auchinleck 9 Nov. 1752 [Fasti Scot. iii. 4]’ (Corr. 8, p. l n. 76). JB had described Dun as ‘sans mannierre’ (‘without manners’) and ‘d’une Education la plus basse’

144

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 144

27/02/23 6:13 PM

27 march 1767 (‘of the meanest sort of education’) (from a discarded portion of JB’s ‘Ébauche de ma vie’ (Sketch of My Life) written for Rousseau (Yale MS. L 1111, Journ. 1, p. 366; translation taken from Earlier Years, p. 18)). But he credited Dun with moderating the effects of the austere Calvinism he had imbibed from his mother and from the Edinburgh Presbyterianism in his earliest years: Dun ‘ne manquoit pas du Sentiment et de la sensibilité. Il commençoit de me former l’Esprit d’une maniêrre qui m’enchantoit. Il me fit lire le Spectateur et c’etoit alors que Je recu mes premiêrres idees du gout pour les beaux arts, et du plaisir qu’il y avoit de considerer la varieté de la vie humaine. Je lisois les poetes Romains et Je sentis un enthousiasme classique dans les ombres romanesques de notre Campagne’ (‘was not without sentiment and sensibility. He began to form my mind in a manner that delighted me. He set me to reading The Spectator; and it was then that I acquired my first notions of taste for

the fine arts and of the pleasure there is in considering the variety of human nature. I read the Roman poets, and I felt a classic enthusiasm in the romantic shades of our family’s seat in the country’) (from the final copy of JB’s ‘Ébauche de ma vie’ (Yale MS. L 1107, Journ. 1, p. 356; translation taken from Earlier Years, pp. 2–3)). 2. Alexander Mitchell of Hallglenmuir (fl. 1760–80), an Ayrshire neighbour and distant cousin of JB’s, being descended from John Boswell, 3rd Laird of Auchinleck (Ominous Years, Chart II, p. 375). ‘He had held the estate of Hallglenmuir in Auchinleck parish since before 1760, but in 1780 was forced to flee abroad to escape his creditors, and the estate was sold to Hugh Logan of Logan [for whom, see p. 154 n. 1] (Ayr and Wigton, I. i. 204; Ayrshire, p. 297; Journ. 18 Apr., 28 May 1780)’ (Corr. 5, p. 187 n. 1). From 1763 until he fled to America, he leased the Auchinleck farm of Stonebriggs (Corr. 8, p. 221).

Tuesday 24 March Carrier not arrived[.] [R]ead to prepare materials for Corsica.

Wednesday 25 March Continued collecting materials.

Thursday 26 March Continued — Carrier came at night.

Friday 27 March Began my Account of Corsica. Could labour well. Father studied Douglas Memorials1 & at intervals Don Quixote2 — much entertained with him — joked on my Account — called it Quixotism. 1. A 549-page Memorial (plus index and appendix) was lodged for the defenders in the great Douglas Cause. There was only one Memorial for the defenders. Perhaps JB’s reference to ‘Douglas Memorials’

in the plural is a reference to the Memorials lodged for each side in that action. The Memorial for the defenders was written by Ilay Campbell of Succoth (1734–1823), advocate (admitted 11 Jan. 1757), later

145

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 145

27/02/23 6:13 PM

27 march 1767 Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Advocates 1783, Solicitor-General for Scotland 1783, M.P. Glasgow Burghs 1784–89, Lord Advocate 1784, Lord President of the Court of Session 14 Nov. 1789 (resigned 1808), Bt. 17 Sept. 1808 (Fac. Adv., p. 29; College of Justice, pp. 539–40; Namier and Brooke, ii. 184). ‘He obtained very extensive practice at the bar, there being scarcely any cause of importance in which he was not engaged or consulted; and many of his written pleadings [were] held as perfect models of brevity, force, and elegance’ (College of Justice, p. 539). ‘There was no brilliancy or eloquence about him. His manner was

dry; his voice was dull; his hard face never glowed with enthusiasm. He was an able, ingenious, hard-working, commonplace man’ (Omond, ii. 175; see also Cockburn, p. 116). 2. That is, Lord Auchinleck read Cervantes’ Don Quixote. ‘Margaret Boswell’s catalogue of the Auchinleck library (c. 1783-[Yale MS.] C 437.6) records a copy of Don Quixote in four volumes; this may be a printing of one of the popular eighteenthcentury translations such as Charles Jervas’s of 1742 or Tobias Smollett’s of 1755’ (Corr. 5, p. 149 n. 4; see also Boswell’s Books, #688, p. 153).

Saturday 28 March Went on well — thought I was writing for Europe. Had kept the house all this week. Honest Dr. Johnston had been with me.1 At night Mr. Brown arrived.2 1. Daniel Johnston (d. 1779), surgeon in Cumnock (near Auchinleck) (Commissariot Record of Glasgow, Register of Testaments, 1547–1800, ed. Sir Francis

J. Grant, SRS, 1901, p. 250). JB was consulting him about the ‘evil’ (for which, see p. 138 n. 15). 2. James Brown, JB’s clerk.

Sunday 29 March At Church.1 Mr. Brown went to Machline.2 Evening Greek Testament — very comfortable. Quite firm — Mind sound after the fever of love. Determined to support the ancient family. Offered up sincere devotion to my Father above. 1. At the old parish church of Auchinleck, where the minister was the Rev. John Dun. The church had been extended by David Boswell (d. 1661), 5th Laird of Auchinleck, in about 1650 (Corr. 8, p. li). After the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1643 prohibited the burial of persons within churches, David Boswell, in order to retain the right to bury family members in the vault beneath the church, ‘had the entry from the church closed off and a new external entrance built to the north’ (Love, p. 51). The new access was provided ‘by constructing a lateral wing

to the church (“the aisle of Auchinleck”). Inside this, steps (usually covered by a trapdoor) led down into the vault. The aisle opened into the church, and contained an elevated seating-area (“loft”) for the Auchinleck family’ (Laird, p. 486 n. 6). In the 1750s, JB’s father, Lord Auchinleck, had the church restored and the nave reroofed (Love, pp. 60 and 62). In 1754, he added an aisle (Corr. 8, p. li; Ayr and Wigton, I. i. 183). 2. MS. ‘Mr. Brown went to Machline [i.e. Mauchline, a town in the Kyle district of Ayrshire (OGS)]’ interlined.

146

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 146

27/02/23 6:13 PM

30 march 1767

Monday 30 March Mr. Brown returned. I wrote my Answers for Steel against Smith,1 & proceeded in Corsica. Received noble letter from Temple2 — Was in great spirits. 1. JB’s Answers were in the case of John Smith v. Archibald Steel. John Smith, a well-known dealer in horses, resided at Loudoun Hill in Loudoun parish, Ayrshire, while Archibald Steel was a miller at Catrine Mill, a cotton mill in Sorn parish, in the Kyle district of Ayrshire (LPJB 1, p. 129 nn. 456 and 457). The case concerned a horse which Steel, acting on behalf of another, sold to Smith, who claimed about three months later that the horse was defective and commenced proceedings before justices of the peace in Ayrshire for repayment of the price (ibid., p. 127). The justices found that the horse must have been unsound at the time of the sale and ordered Steel to take back the horse and to return the purchase price (£10 18s. 6d.) to Smith and pay expenses of 10s. (Petition of Archibald Steel by JB dated 19 July 1768 (Signet Library 590:5), page 2; LPJB 1, p. 130). Smith had a charge served on Steel for payment of the price, but the case was then brought before the Court of Session on behalf of Steel by way of suspension (this being the reason why JB refers to the case as being ‘Steel against Smith’ (see p. 61 n. 70)). JB first became involved in the case on 2 Feb., when he received instructions from John Muir Chalmer (1726–74) of Gadgirth, W.S. (admitted 7 Jan. 1756, assumed name of Chalmer in 1764 (W.S. Register, p. 56)), to attend a hearing the following day before Lord Kennet on behalf of Steel (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, p. 373). On 6 Feb., Lord Kennet pronounced an interlocutor finding that ‘it was admitted the sale of the horse was in February 1766, that the charger [Smith] wrought the horse during the month of March last, and did not offer him back to the suspender [Steel] till the 27th of May thereafter’. His Lordship accordingly suspended the letters of diligence on which

the charge for payment had been given (Petition of Archibald Steel by JB dated 19 July 1768 (supra), page 2; LPJB 1, p. 130). Smith then reclaimed to the Inner House. JB would subsequently receive instructions ‘to draft Answers to [the] reclaiming petition for Smith, but there is no reference to the Answers . . . in the Consultation Book. This is probably because [JB] refused to take fees for this later work, and the reason for that appears to be that the person for whom Steel had sold the horse was an Ayrshire neighbour, Alexander Farquhar [d. c. 1779] of Gilmillscroft [an estate in Sorn parish, Ayrshire (OGS, iii. 87; Ayrshire, p. 295), ‘three miles from Auchinleck House’ (Corr. 5, p. 133 n. 1)]. On 30 March . . . , Farquhar sent [JB] a letter [printed in Corr. 5, p. 133] acknowledging receipt of a letter from [JB] “with your fee returned which was not near Equal to the truble you have had in this process”. The letter goes on to say: “the frendship you Express as Serving me as a Neighbour shall alway be kept in remembrance”’ (LPJB 1, p. 127). JB’s printed Answers, extending to ten pages, are dated 24 Apr. 1767 (Houghton Library EC75. B6578C. 1767d). The reason the Answers are dated 24 Apr., although JB drafted them on 30 Mar., is that John Muir Chalmer did not receive JB’s draft until 20 Apr. and then had to get the Answers printed for lodging in court (From Chalmer, 22 Apr. 1767, Corr. 5, p. 150). JB’s Answers were commented on by Ives, pp. 257ff. ‘Ives remarks (at p. 258) that [JB] begins the Answers “with deplorable bounce”. The Answers, in the printed version held in the Houghton Library . . . , commence as follows: “This is really a whimsical enough process. Were the respondent disposed to play upon words, he might be a little

147

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 147

27/02/23 6:13 PM

30 march 1767 pleasant on a contest between Smith and Steel; and as Steel has at present the better of Smith, he might quote the epigram on Stephen, a noted fiddler: Stephen and Time Are now both even; Stephen beat Time, Now Time beats Stephen. But to be serious . . . ”

As Ives observes (at p. 258), [JB] goes on (at pages 1–2 of the [printed] Answers) “to vilify Smith” and “to eulogize Steel”, referring to Smith as “a blade now who rides you about . . . vapouring . . . having often with him a stoned horse [i.e. a stallion] . . . and never wanting a box of pepper in his pocket” (pepper was a common ingredient in concoctions designed to give a horse more energy: Gibson, pp. 149, 152, 182, 190 and 224), whereas, says [JB], Steel “follows the sober and industrious employment of a miller, which necessarily keeps him much at home”. Ives also remarks (at p. 262) that [JB] concludes the Answers (which “abounds with pleasantries, irrelevancies, and some inconsistencies”) with “some wholly irrelevant remarks on horsemanship”’ (LPJB 1, p. 130 n. 461). On 1 July, the Inner House would remit the case to Lord Kennet to allow a further proof, and on 9 Feb. 1768, after the further proof had been taken, Lord Kennet would pronounce an interlocutor finding that, on the basis of the evidence and that Steel had admitted he had warranted that the horse was sound, the letters of diligence on which the charge was given were executed according to law. Lord Kennet therefore found in favour of Smith (Petition of Archibald Steel by JB dated 19 July 1768 (supra), page 3; LPJB 1, pp. 131–32). For further procedure in the case, see p. 333 n. 7 and pp. 333–34 n. 9. 2. In his letter, dated 20–27 Mar. (Corr. 6, pp. 175–79), WJT expressed the view that, although he accepted that there were some, and he hoped many, worthy individuals among the clergy, as a body of men the clergy were ‘the very scourge &

bane of society’, for over the ages and in every country they had been motivated by ‘Power, & Riches, & the pleasures of Sense, the debasement of Reason & the glory of Ignorance’. ‘Need I enumerate’, asked WJT, ‘their unrelenting persecutions, their unheard of cruelties, their damnable intolerant spirit? Have not talents, & virtue & the love of our Country, been the constant quarries of their hellish malice & abominable tyranny[?] . . . And tell me one precept of the Bible that was not inculcated by Philosophy long before the Founder of Christianity was born? . . . [Morals] were taught in their greatest purity by those who denied the existence of God; for the Stoicians you know would admit of no God but the World [for commentary on this assertion, see Corr. 6, pp. 179–80 n. 9]. Indeed, it is certain that the moral part is not the tenth thousandth part of the Scripture, & that the writings of the Greek Philosophers are much more full & copious upon every part of our duty.’ In response to JB’s lamentation in his letter to WJT dated 1 Feb.–8 Mar. that his jealousy had been aroused on hearing of Mrs. Dodds’s ‘former intrigues’ (see p. 129 n. 1), WJT remarked: ‘[A]n English woman who has known more than one man is fit for the Stews. Think of this when in the arms of your adulterous Chloe. She would enjoy a porter with much higher gout [i.e. relish]. Your money indeed gives you the preference. Generous indeed! A house & a maid. And upon no other terms . . . I sha’nt be easy till you break with her.’ JB forwarded WJT’s letter to his brother David, who wrote back on 9 Apr. (returning the letter), ‘I have read with pleasure Temple’s letter, he speaks exactly my Sentiments, with regard to a certain unhappy attachment’ (Yale MS. C 489). In his reply to WJT dated 30 Mar. (Corr. 6, pp. 181–82), i.e. the same day that he had received WJT’s letter, JB wrote that he was now ‘totally emancipated from my Charmer’. He exclaimed ‘What a snare have I escaped!’, then proceeded to quote (without attribution) the allusion Lord

148

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 148

27/02/23 6:13 PM

31 march 1767 Monboddo had made in conversation (see entry for 16 Mar. above): ‘Do you remember Ulysses & Circe? Sub Domina meretrice vixisset turpis et excors.’ (JB notes, however, that because he took a house for Mrs. Dodds, ‘I shall have a house & a Servant maid upon my hands.’) He then goes on to discuss matrimonial possibilities: ‘I intend next autumn to visit Miss Bosville in Yorkshire. But I fear my lot being cast in Scotland, that Beauty would not be content. She is however grave. I shall see.’ JB also mentions Catherine Blair of Adamton, ‘who has an estate of her own between two & three hundred a year, just eighteen, a genteel Person, an agreable face, of a good family, sensible good tempered, chearfull pious. You know my grand object is the ancient Family of Auchinleck a venerable & noble principle. How would it do to conclude an alli-

ance with this neighbouring Princess, and add her lands to our Dominions. I should at once have a very pretty little estate, a good house & a sweet place. My Father is very fond of her. It would make him perfectly happy.’ JB goes on to write enthusiastically about Auchinleck: ‘This is a superb Place. We have the noblest natural Beauties & my Father has made most extensive improvements. We look ten miles out upon our own Dominions . . . I am now writing in a Library 40 foot long . . . I am now seriously engaged in my Account of Corsica. It elevates my Soul, & makes me spernere humum [‘“spurn the earth”, adapted from Horace: “True worth . . . spurns the vulgar crowd and damp earth on fleeting pinion” (Odes III. ii. 21–24, trans. C. E. Bennett, Loeb ed.)’ (Corr. 6, p. 183 n. 21)]. I shall have it finished by June.’

Tuesday 31 March Began1 Information for Gilkie,2 Read allways a little of Hamilton & Douglas Memorials after breakfast. At night you & Father both owned you were living very happily. 1. MS. ‘Wrote’ deleted. ‘Began’ interlined. 2. The case of James Gilkie v. William Wallace (for the background to which, and the earlier procedure in the action, see p. 118 n. 3). The printed Information, dated 25 Apr. and extending to thirteen pages (with an eight-page printed copy of the proof subjoined) (Signet Library 115:22), is transcribed, excluding the copy of the proof, in LPJB 1, pp. 272–84. The Information, which JB started dictating (to Brown) this day and would finish the following day, was in response to an interlocutor by Lord Kennet on 10 Mar. making ‘avisandum . . . to the whole Lords’ and appointing parties ‘to lodge informations in the Lords boxes, in order to a report upon the 25th of April next’ (Information (supra), page 3; LPJB 1, p. 275). (For the

Lords’ boxes, see LPJB 1, p. 182 n. 613.) On 4 Apr., Gilkie, not realizing that JB had already drafted the Information, would write to JB entreating ‘the favour of you to draw my Information and as soon as convenient for you to have it done’ (Corr. 5, p. 134). As Roughead observes, the Information is composed with JB’s ‘wonted impetuosity and fire’ (Roughead, p. 145). The Information commences as follows: ‘More flagrant oppression than what the memorialist has met with, has hardly occurred in any civilized country. Inured as he has been for these many years to the most cruel distress, he has not yet arrived at a state of insensibility, but has feeling enough left to rejoice, that the malice of his enemies has at last risen to so daring a height, that mole ruit sua [it collapses under its own weight (Horace, Odes III. iv. 65)] . . . The

149

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 149

27/02/23 6:13 PM

31 march 1767 memorialist, who was very early in life bound apprentice to William Wallace, writer in Edinburgh, incurred his master’s displeasure, because the memorialist’s diligence in business, to the best of his small abilities, and his obliging behaviour to every body, were so remarkable, that Mr Wallace entertained a jealousy, that the memorialist, when he set up for himself, might carry away the greatest part of Mr Wallace’s clients; and therefore he conceived a hatred against the memorialist of so inveterate a nature, that he has never ceased to persecute him with unrelenting barbarity, in every manner that he could possibly devise; tearing to pieces his character, so as to ruin his success in honest industry . . . Mr Wallace was so much exasperated at a late petition which the memorialist presented to your Lordships against him, that James Wallace, son to William Wallace, did, without doubt at his father’s instigation, actually attempt the memorialist’s life, by making a pass at the memorialist with a drawn knife, swearing, he would stab him for having exposed his parents’ (Information (supra), pages 1–2; LPJB 1, pp. 272–74). After reciting the evidence to support the allegation of malice on William Wallace’s part, and on the part of his family (Information (supra), pages 4–6; LPJB 1, pp. 275–77), JB went on to narrate the evidence to support the allegation of attempted murder on the part of Wallace’s son James (Information (supra), pages

7–11; LPJB 1, pp. 278–82). On 20 June, the Inner House would pronounce the following interlocutor: ‘On report of the Lord Kennet The Lords Find the Complaint in so far as relates to William Wallace the father Not Proven, – Assoilzie him therefrom, Find the Complainer liable to him in expences . . . But Find it Proven That James Wallace the Son did invade and assault the Complainer in revenge of certain Petitions and Complaints by him exhibited to this court And Therefore Ordain the said James Wallace to be carried from the bar to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh therein to be incarcerated till Tuesday the Thirtieth day of June Current And thereafter untill he shall find Caution [security] in the hands of the Clerk to this Complaint to keep the peace for the space of one year under the penalty of Ten Pounds Sterling . . . Further the Lords find the said James Wallace liable to the complainer in expences . . . But in respect that the Complaint as given in was wrong laid & contained false facts, And also in respect of very improper behaviour on the part of the Complainer Find no damages due’ (NRS CS230/G/2/29; see also AS, pp. 562–63). Gilkie would duly lodge an account of expenses. No sums were claimed in respect of the work carried out by JB or his instructing agent, John Muir Chalmer, W.S. There is no reference to this case in the Consultation Book and so it seems that JB received no remuneration for his work in this case (LPJB 1, p. 285).

Wednesday 1 April1 Went on with Gilkie. Corsica is allways understood to go on. Finished Gilkie. 1. MS. Above heading ‘April 1767.’ for the April entries, ‘March 1’ deleted.

Thursday 2 April Mr. Brown at Cumnock. Mr. Reid dined.1 Gave him your time as a worthy old friend of the family. Talked of your Grandfather, &c. Dr. Johnston drank tea. You was still bad. At nights had fear of Ghosts — Poor Robert Hay.2 150

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 150

27/02/23 6:13 PM

3 april 1767 1. The Rev. George Reid (1696– 1786), M.A. (Edinburgh, 1723), ordained minister of Ochiltree parish (which included much of the Auchinleck estate), in the Kyle district of Ayrshire, 16 June 1725; married (in 1746) Lord Auchinleck’s first cousin Jean (or Jane) Campbell (d. 1770), daughter of George Campbell of Treesbank and sister of James Campbell of Treesbank (for whom, see p. 156 n. 1); and died ‘Father of the Church’ (Fasti Scot. iii. 62; Ominous Years, Chart VI, p. 379; Corr. 5, p. 44 n. 1). He ‘had been chaplain to James Boswell, [JB’s] grandfather, and domestic tutor to Lord Auchinleck. He was now about 70 and lived to be 90’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 55 n. 3, McGrawHill p. 52 n. 4). He lived at Barquharrie (otherwise known as Balquherry, Balwharrie or Barwharrie), an estate in Ochiltree parish (Ayrshire, pp. 145 and 274; Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 618 and 656; Corr. 5, p. 44 and n. 1; Corr. 9, p. 329 n. 1). 2. For Robert Hay, see p. 99 n. 1, and p. 100 n. 1. He had been hanged on 25 Mar. JB received a report of the hanging in the letter from his brother David of that date. The letter discloses that David had witnessed the hanging at the request of JB

(who knew he would be at Auchinleck and not in Edinburgh at the time): ‘According as you desired I have been to see Poor Robt. Hay executed[;] as I knew no person who had windows to the G:Mercat [Grassmarket], I was obliged to be among the Crowd, I could not get near, so I do not know if he said anything aloud, but I imagine he did not. [H]e continued on the Ladder for about a Quarter of an hour, & seemed in general penitent, however in his Speech, he denies his having any Concern in the Robbery, but that he got the Watch next morning from Jo. Butterfield to dispose of without knowing it to be stolen, you best know whether or not this can be believed’ (Yale MS. C 487). The reference to Hay’s ‘Speech’ is probably a reference to a published ‘Last Speech, Confession and Dying Words’. In John Reid’s case in 1774 (for which, see pp. 57–58 n. 47), his Last Speech, Confession, and Dying Words (Yale Lg 24:3) was evidently written for him by Alexander Ritchie (Catalogue, iii. 1132; Journ. 9 Sept. 1774, Defence, Heinemann p. 323, McGraw-Hill pp. 309–10), referred to by JB as ‘a kind of lay teacher who humanely attends all the people under sentence of death’ (Journ. 29 Aug. 1774, Defence, Heinemann p. 297, McGraw-Hill p. 284).

Friday 3 April Wrote Replies for Brown against Par.1 Mr. Paterson dind2 — you laboured hard & with spirit. 1. The Replies were in the case of John Brown v. Caesar Parr, in which JB acted for Brown. The instructing agent was William Wilson, W.S. (Consultation Book, 9 Mar. 1767; LPJB 1, p. 375). Brown was a merchant in Glasgow, while Caesar Parr (1730–92) was a merchant in Peel (then known as Peeltown), Isle of Man (IMPR). The action, which had been raised in the Court of Session in 1765, concerned fifteen casks (or hogsheads) of rum, which Brown claimed Parr was obliged to deliver to him

but had refused to do. In early 1767, having established that five casks of rum containing 553 gallons had been delivered to Parr and were still in his possession, Brown obtained a warrant from the court to demand delivery of that rum to him. On 11 Apr., Brown would send the warrant to George Moore (1709–87), a highly successful merchant in Peel (dealing particularly in imported spirits with the intention of selling them to smugglers, the bulk of the spirits being smuggled into western Scotland), later

151

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 151

27/02/23 6:13 PM

3 april 1767 knighted (1782) (Craine), asking him to receive the rum from Parr. It seems that it would subsequently transpire that the rum was in the possession of a Mrs. Mylrea, who, after selling the rum, would give Brown a ‘note of hand’ (i.e. a written promise) to pay the net proceeds of £77. 3. 11 to him, which Brown found ‘to be very right’ (letter from Brown to Moore dated 21 Sept. 1767). On 17 Feb. 1768, 12 Aug. 1768, 27 July 1769 and 5 Feb. 1770, JB would be instructed to attend consultations in the case (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, pp. 399, 402, 408). On 16 Nov. 1768, having been appointed commissioner by the Court of Session to examine Parr’s books and papers, George Moore would report on the state of a copybook of letters exhibited by Parr’s sister, Mrs. Margery (or Margaret) Crane (?1704–80 (Memorial Inscriptions, St. Peter’s, Peel, )) of Peel, and on copies of three letters in the book (dated respectively 24 Aug. 1764, 25 Sept. 1764 and 19 Jan. 1765), being referred to as ‘the Objects of this Inquiry’, and would report on ‘their several Variations & Omissions’ in comparison with the copies which had been given to him. (The letters from Brown to Moore, and Moore’s report of the commission, are contained in the papers of George Moore within the manuscript collection of Manx National Heritage Library and Archives (MS 04217 C).) On 20 Feb. 1769, JB would be instructed to draft a

Representation (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, p. 406). Decree of absolvitor would be granted on 28 Feb. 1769 (Court of Session Minute Book, Potts Office (NRS CS74/18)), but it seems that on 8 Feb. 1776 the court reversed its decision, for on that date the court granted decree in favour of Brown. That JB’s involvement in Parr’s affairs continued is indicated by the postal wrapper addressed ‘To Mr. James Boswell, Advocate, Caningate’ and endorsed by JB’s clerk, John Lawrie: ‘Cesar Parr covering state of his Case, with several Letters. Rec’d 18 febry. 1771’ (Yale MS. M 344) (see p. 63 n. 76). On 22 Feb. 1776, the court would refuse Representations for both parties (Court of Session Minute Book, Potts Office (NRS CS74/21)). The Court of Session process in respect of this case has not been traced. In his journal entry for 27 Apr. 1769, JB would report a conversation with Capt. Montgomery-Cuninghame about the case, and would remark that ‘there was no law in the case’ (i.e. the case did not turn on a point of law). 2. Possibly William Paterson (1718– 72) of Braehead, writer in Kilmarnock, who would be appointed Town Clerk of Kilmarnock in 1769. His son William (1749– 1802) would succeed him as Town Clerk of Kilmarnock and would hold that position until about 1790 (Ayrshire, pp. 87, 133, 278; McKay, appendix IX, p. 289; LPJB 2, pp. 233–35; ).

Saturday 4 April Accounts came of the Corsicans having made a descent on Capraja1 with a letter from Mr. Dick2 confirming it, & informing you that all your correspondence was safe.3 You was roused. You had not felt your blood in fermentation of a long time before. You only regretted that you dont feel Yourself more manly. This your own fault. Resolved more guarded conduct. 1. Shortly after issuing a manifesto on 27 Jan. 1767, Paoli had made ‘a surprise attack on the island of Capraia, a Genoese

garrison twenty-five miles east of the northern tip of Corsica . . . Despite repeated efforts on the part of the Genoese fleet to

152

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 152

27/02/23 6:13 PM

7 april 1767 effect a landing, the commander of the garrison was forced to surrender to Paoli on 29 May’ (Corr. 5, p. 127 n. 2). 2. John Dick (1720–1804), British Consul in Leghorn (1754–76). JB met Dick on 13 Aug. 1765 in Florence (Notes (Yale MS. J 7)). ‘The meeting was the beginning of a lifelong friendship and a regular correspondence, their common interests being the Corsican struggle for independence and the establishment of Dick’s claim to the dormant baronetcy of Braid. For an account of JB’s relationship with Dick and his involvement in the bar-

onetcy claim, see Scots Charta Chest, pp. 216–23’ (Corr. 5, p. 5 n. 1; see also Comp. Bar. ii. 449). 3. John Dick’s letter, dated 6 Mar. 1767, sent from Leghorn, stated that Paoli’s forces had landed on Capraia on 16 Feb. and that the latest news was that they had ‘taken all the Towers, and were beseiging the Fortress’, but Dick added that on the day on which he was writing a Genoese fleet had passed by going to the relief of the island. Dick also confirmed that various letters JB had sent had arrived safely (Corr. 5, pp. 121–23).

Sunday 5 April Mr. Brown had gone yesterday to Kilmarnock. At Church. Evening read Greek Testament & Hervey.1 1. James Hervey (1714–58), evangelical Church of England clergyman and writer, who was a member of the Oxford Methodists and much influenced by John Wesley (Oxford DNB). ‘Hervey was author of such popular essays as Meditations among the Tombs, Reflections on a Flower Garden, and Contemplations on the Night [published collectively in many editions as Meditations and Contemplations]’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 56 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 52 n. 6). His ‘peculiar ecstatic style . . . delighted huge numbers of readers and disgusted some critics’ (Oxford DNB). JB was among those delighted, and SJ was among the disgusted. On 25 Apr. 1763,

JB had recorded that, on a visit to Oxford, he went to Lincoln College, ‘in which the amiable & ingenious Hervey lived, whose Meditations breathe the most genuine Piety and are full of fancy[,] taste & elegance’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 206). He was influenced in this admiration by his mother’s. At Inveraray during the tour to the Highlands and Hebrides, he would report that SJ ‘thought slightingly of this admired book’ and ‘treated it with ridicule’, but ‘I am not an impartial judge. For Hervey’s Meditations were the delight of my dear, pious mother, and engaged my affections in my early years’ (24 Oct. 1773, Hebrides, p. 349).

Monday 6 April Corsica went on & old charters. You saw every thing is only practice.

Tuesday 7 April Mr. Dun here. Logan too din’d.1 You was well enough. At night talked with Mr. Dun on the nature of God — & of a future state. Felt yourself much unaccustomd to these subjects. Meditated seriously. Wonderfull thought! Alarming too — But God is good. 153

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 153

27/02/23 6:13 PM

7 april 1767 1. Hugh Logan (1739–1802) of Logan, an estate in Old Cumnock parish, in the Kyle district of Ayrshire (OGS, v. 546), about 5 miles south-east of Auchinleck House. The ‘Laird of Logan’ was renowned for his ‘racy wit and extravagant hospitality’ (Corr. 7, p. 197 n. 1). His ‘racy humour was celebrated in a nineteenth-century collection of anecdotes called The Laird of Logan [first edition (Glasgow, 1835) edited by John D. Carrick]’ (Applause, p. 12 n. 5). JB did not like to be compared to Logan (Ominous Years, p. 62 n. 6). After drinking tea with him in Edinburgh in 1775, JB would

remark: ‘I had such accounts of his behaving unhandsomely in the Ayrshire elections that I had no liking for his company. Clownishness and duplicity make a sad mixture’ (Journ. 9 Feb. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 62). JB suspected that in the election for Ayrshire in the 1774 general election (for which, see pp. 69–70 n. 2) Logan had made Hugh Mitchell of Polosh (for whom, see p. 161 n. 6) vote for Sir Adam Fergusson of Kilkerran ‘contrary to his promise’, but JB was later assured by Alexander Mitchell of Hallglenmuir that Hugh Mitchell denied it (Journ. 4 June 1779, Laird, p. 106).

Wednesday 8 April Dr. Johnston thought me better. Corsica still.

Thursday 9 April Craigingillan1 & Mr. Duff2 dined. You was quite easy & felt the effect of experience, which it is impossible for youth to conceive. Only[,] most people are not so much surprised with it, because they did not look so far before them in youth as I did. In the evening came Captain Cunninghame Montgomerie3 & Mathew Dickie — very comfortable. 1. John McAdam of Craigengillan. 2. William Duff, sheriff-depute of Ayrshire.

3. Capt. Alexander Cuninghame.

Montgomery-

Friday 10 April Your toe was pretty well,1 & you walked in the Broomholm2 with Mathew. You talk’d of Miss B––––.3 I felt my openess too great. I might soon acquire a habit of telling every thing — by doing so, a man becomes quite easy; but loses delicacy & dignity. You thought it best to own a libertine misfortune & regret your fault. The same Company continued all night with honest Hallglenmuir.4 You found time however to advance a little in Corsica. 1. JB suffered for many years from ingrown toenails ‘caused by much walking down mountain trails in riding-boots’ in Corsica (Earlier Years, p. 252). For a record by JB of an operation on one of his toes, see

the (undated) journal notes after 30 Mar. 1768 (pp. 298–99 below). 2. An ‘extensive area of meadow on the Auchinleck estate’ (Corr. 6, p. 194 n. 8), about ½ mile to the south of Auchinleck

154

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 154

27/02/23 6:13 PM

12 april 1767 House (map of estate of Auchinleck c. 1787 in Corr. 8, following p. 243). Fruit trees were planted on part of the Broomholm in 1766– 68 (Corr. 8, p. 215). ‘“Holm” is “howm”, a water-meadow ([DSL,] SND), and broom has magical associations in folklore and balladry (L. C. Wimberly, Folklore in the English

and Scottish Ballads, 1928, pp. 351, 355). Broomholm certainly aroused strong feelings in JB, going back to childhood visits in his grandfather’s time’ (Corr. 6, p. 194 n. 8). 3. Catherine Blair of Adamton. 4. Alexander Mitchell of Hallglenmuir.

Saturday 11 April Overton1 & Dronghan2 dined, & Overton stayed all night. Corsica went on. Mr. Brown went to Kilm[arnoc]k. 1. William Fullarton (d. 1793) of Overton (a village in Dreghorn parish, in the Cunningham district of Ayrshire (OGS, v. 145)). The estate of Overton had been conveyed to him by his father, Robert Fullarton of Overton, in 1749 (Ayr and Wigton, III. ii. 320; Corr. 7, p. 197 n. 5). 2. Mungo Smith (d. 1814 (Scots Mag. 1814, lxxvi. 319)) of Drongan (an estate in Stair parish in the Kyle district of Ayrshire (Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 721; Ayrshire, p. 289)). In the criminal letters against Robert Johnston and others (Yale MS. Lg 8:1), referred to by JB as ‘the Galloway Rioters’, he appears as ‘Mungo Smith of Drongan’ in

the list of persons selected to be members of the assize at the trial, which would take place at Ayr on 22 May (see pp. 191–92 n. 1 below). It therefore seems ‘likely that he had taken over management of the Drongan estate from his father John before that date . . . He [would begin] a serious improvement of his land in 1770; he built a road to enable him to bring manure for enriching his lands, and he was a firm advocate of the use of lime as a fertilizer. At the same time, he actively promoted mining the coal on his estate, which was his main interest (Janet Retter, Drongan: The Story of a Mining Village, 1978, pp. 24, 26, 77)’ (Corr. 5, p. 85 n. 1).

Sunday 12 April Overton very kindly agreed to buy Dalblair for me,1 & got a letter of commission from my Father to the extent of £900. We had much good conversation on my being a well-doing Laird, as the Jamess have been in this Family.2 Overton went to Church with us from whence He went home. At night we read our Greek Chapters[,] translating one in english, the other in latin. 1. Dalblair, part of the ‘wild moorish vale’ of Glenmuir, situated ‘on the eastern border of Auchinleck parish’ (OGS, iii. 192, s.v. ‘Glenmuir’). Dalblair bordered on the Auchinleck estate, and JB’s motive in acquiring the land, as he would record in 1775, was that he ‘wished to appear in the family archives as having added Dalblair to our territories’ (Journ. 17 Nov. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 182).

2. A reference to James Boswell (d. 1618), 4th Laird of Auchinleck, and James Boswell, 7th Laird of Auchinleck (JB’s paternal grandfather). Lord Auchinleck, in a letter received by JB in Utrecht on 12 Nov. 1763, had expressed pleasure in the prospect that JB himself would ‘tread in the steps of the former Jameses, who in this family have been remarkably useful’ (Holland, Heinemann p. 63, McGraw-Hill p. 65).

155

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 155

27/02/23 6:13 PM

13 april 1767

Monday 13 April Corsica advanced. Treesbank1 & Polquhairn2 dined. The latter told you gross scandal of Mrs ––––. It hardly hurt you — So well are you grown. Dr. Johnston thought you not so well. Said your distemper had Paroxysms but could hardly go wrong in the way you treated it.3 Mr. Brown returned. 1. James Campbell (d. 1776) of Treesbank (in Riccarton parish, Ayrshire (OGS, vi. 450)), Lord Auchinleck’s first cousin (Ominous Years, Chart VI, p. 379). In 1768, he would marry, as his second wife, Mary Montgomerie (d. 1777), second daughter of his first cousin Veronica Boswell and David Montgomerie of Lainshaw, the elder sister of JB’s future wife,

Margaret Montgomerie (ibid.). See also Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 656; Ayrshire, p. 315; Corr. 5, p. 15 n. 1. 2. Adam Craufurd Newall (or Newall Craufurd) (d. 1790) of Polquhairn (in Ochiltree parish, Ayrshire (Ayrshire, p. 287)). He was a near neighbour of the Boswells. 3. MS. ‘Dr. Johnston . . . treated it’ scored off with a modern pen.

Tuesday 14 April Began Information for Mckenzies against Sir Alexr. Mckenzie1 — Made Library consulting room to inspire you with noble ideas of antiquity of family while you wrote in favour of entails.2 Mr. Andrew Campbell came — walked with him — & gave him your time as a Client.3 You was quite a Patronus Causarum4 at his Lacedæmonium Tarentum.5 Honest Treesbank returned from Barquharrie6 & dined. Fingland7 too was with us. Little was done to Corsica. You began Dorando.8 Messrs. Dun & Young9 were here at night. 1. JB had received a letter, dated 7 Apr., from John Tait in Edinburgh (answering one from JB (not reported) of 28 Mar.) in which Tait expressed himself ‘glad’ that JB had ‘found time so soon to consider the Cause McKenzie v. McKenzie. There is no Day fixed for giving in the Informations, but the sooner they are ready the Better.’ Tait predicted that the case would prove a troublesome one for JB (and he concluded the letter with a hope – in the event unrealized – ‘to have the pleasure of waiting of you at Auchinleck sometime in the beginning of May’) (Corr. 5, pp. 137–38 and nn. 1–4). The Information was in the case of Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Gairloch v. Hector Mackenzie, younger, of Gairloch, and Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle, in which JB represented the defenders. ‘The background to

this case is that when Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1700–66) of Gairloch [a parish and coastal village of west Ross-shire (OGS, iii. 65)], Bt, married in 1730 he entered into a marriage contract binding himself to resign his lands and estate to the heirs of the marriage in fee with a liferent in favour of himself. In 1752, Sir Alexander executed a deed of entail settling the estate on heirsmale and containing the usual prohibitions against selling the estate or burdening it with debt. Sir Alexander’s son and heir, Sir Alexander Mackenzie (c. 1730–70) of Gairloch, Bt, the pursuer in this action, married twice, first Margaret Mackenzie (died 1759), daughter of Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle, and secondly, in 1760, Jean Gorry. The pursuer was anxious that the children of his second marriage should

156

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 156

27/02/23 6:13 PM

14 april 1767 be adequately provided for and to that end sought to have his father’s deed of entail set aside. The pursuer claimed that, on the death of his father, his father’s estate, then freed of the liferent to the father under the marriage contract of 1730, vested in the pursuer under the marriage contract as heir of the marriage. The action was raised against two defenders, Hector Mackenzie (1758–1826), son of the pursuer and his first wife Margaret, and Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle, father of Margaret and tutor ad litem of Hector’ (LPJB 1, p. 247). The printed Information, dated 1 July 1767 and extending to twelve pages (Signet Library 150:4), is transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 249–56. As said by John Murray, the Information ‘is a most beautifully Boswellian production; and no clerk’s hand has toned down the eloquent sentences and characteristic phrases or the obviously sincere sentiments’ (Murray, p. 233). On page 2 of the Information (LPJB 1, p. 250), JB summarized his arguments as follows: ‘1st, That although a man has provided his estate by contract to the heirs of a marriage, he still remains fiar, has still administration, and has still power to make all rational deeds. 2dly, That an entail is a rational deed. 3dly, That this entail in particular is a rational one. 4thly, That it has been homologated in the strongest manner by the pursuer [in his own contract of marriage entered into in 1755].’ On 4 Dec. 1767, the Inner House of the Court of Session would pronounce an interlocutor finding that Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the pursuer, was barred, by his own contract of marriage, from reducing the entail, and therefore assoilzieing the defenders (LPJB 1, p. 259; Morison’s Dictionary, 5665–69; Faculty Decisions, 1765–69, iv. 298–301; Hailes’s Decisions, i. 252–53). Sir Alexander Mackenzie would then lodge a reclaiming petition, and on 1 Jan. 1768 JB would receive instructions to draft Answers (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, p. 397). The printed Answers, dated 8 Jan. 1768 and extending to eight pages (Signet Library 150:4), are transcribed in LPJB 1,

pp. 259–63. The court would adhere to its earlier decision, and Sir Alexander Mackenzie would then lodge a further reclaiming petition. JB’s printed Answers, dated 23 Sept. 1768 and extending to eight pages (Advocates’ Library MEAD.61), are transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 264–68. On 25 Nov. 1768, the court would pronounce a further interlocutor adhering to its earlier decision (Morison’s Dictionary, 5669; Faculty Decisions, 1765–69, iv. 301; and Hailes’s Decisions, i. 253). 2. JB ‘was in favour of entails as a means of securing the male line of succession to estates. Indeed, when his father, Lord Auchinleck, announced in 1775 that he had made an entail in favour of heirs male descending from [JB]’s paternal grandfather and then to heirs female, [JB would declare] that he would not sign the deed of entail unless it was changed so as to entail the estate solely on heirs male for ever, even though this would effectively disinherit [JB]’s own daughters by excluding them from the main order of succession [Journ. 27 Dec. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 205]. [JB] wrote of his “feudal enthusiasm for the heirs male of our founder, Thomas Boswell” [Journ. 31 Dec. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 209]. (Thomas Boswell, the first Laird of Auchinleck, was given the castle and barony in 1504 by James IV as a reward for his devoted service and was later to die fighting with his king at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.) Several months later, after a fit of remorse, [JB would plead] with his father to include his daughters after all. “My old Gothic Salic male enthusiasm abated”, he noted [Journ. 6 Aug. 1776, Extremes, p. 19]. (Salic: “a law excluding females from dynastic succession”: SOED.) However, when [JB] went to sign the deed the following day and was led to believe that his father had refused his request, he signed the deed nevertheless. “To confess the truth,” he wrote, “my male principle had by this time recovered itself, and it was a comfort to me to think that the estate was now secured to the sons of Auchinleck, which I

157

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 157

27/02/23 6:13 PM

14 april 1767 would not regret unless in the very improbable event of my seeing my own daughters next in succession, and excluded” [Journ. 7 Aug. 1776, Extremes, p. 20]’ (LPJB 1, p. 248 n. 819). In fact, the ‘Disposition and Deed of Entail signed by [JB] settled the estate on heirs male of [JB]’s great-grandfather (calling in the first place the heirs male of Lord Auchinleck’s body) followed by “heirs whatsoever” of Lord Auchinleck (Register of Tailzies, [NRS] RT.1/19, Folio 233)’ (BEJ, p. 261 n. 77). JB indulged his enthusiasm for entails when drafting the Information for Hector Mackenzie of Gairloch and Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle, which would become the printed Information dated 1 July 1767 (for which, see preceding note). On page 4 of the printed Information (LPJB 1, p. 251) JB wrote: ‘From the earliest antiquity mankind have been fond of perpetuating their memory, and succeeding generations have loved to keep up the remembrance of their ancestors. This is a natural and a noble principle. It hath even something venerable in it; and it is of all principles the most disinterested . . . In aid of this principle, monuments have been erected, and the ingenuity of man has shown itself in a variety of ways; one of which was the invention of an entail, by which the memory of those who have by merit acquired possessions, may be transmitted to the latest posterity; and this without doing any injury to their descendents . . . And an entail is materially useful in a political view; because it is the means of preserving ancient families, which are like beams in the constitution, are the firmest security against tyrannical incroachments, and, in this state, must ever hold the balance between the sovereign and the people. Ancient families too contribute to the happiness of society, founded on just subordination. They are a blessing to the country, and, like stately trees, spread shelter and comfort around them.’ 3. Andrew Campbell may have been a party to the case of Campbell v. Houston, in which JB had received various instructions

(on 26 Nov. 1766 to attend a hearing before Lord Auchinleck; on 31 Jan. 1767, probably to draft a Memorial; and on 26 Feb. 1767 to draft a Representation (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, pp. 371, 373 and 375)). See also p. 89 n. 3. 4. Patronus causarum: an advocate. 5. Lacedæmonium Tarentum: his Spartan city of Tarentum (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 15.50). 6. For Barquharrie, see p. 151 n. 1. 7. James Chalmers (d. 1783) of Fingland, who ‘had sasine of the land of Fingland, Cornharrow, &c.’ in 1745 (McKerlie, iii. 430; From Margaret Chalmers, 10 Apr. 1783; Corr. 7, p. 105 n. 5). JB had referred to Chalmers as ‘a man of moderate understanding and some taste, very honest and very obliging’ (Journ. 19 Sept. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 54). His estate of Fingland was a ‘little estate’ in Dalry parish, Kirkcudbrightshire (ibid.). See also pp. 89–90 n. 1. 8. Dorando, A Spanish Tale, which would be published anonymously as a fifty-page pamphlet (see Introduction, p. 23). This was ‘a biased account of the history of the Douglas Cause [for which, see Introduction, pp. 20–29] dressed up as a Spanish tale (with the principal characters given names such as “Don Carlos”, “Don Spirito”, “Princess Maria” and “Don Ferdinand”). This pamphlet, which was to be published on 15 June, was to be so much in demand that a third edition was required . . . The reason for the great interest in Dorando was that its publication occurred just as the Court of Session proceedings in the Douglas Cause were coming to a head. There was mounting public excitement, partly fuelled by a series of bogus (and sometimes very amusing) newspaper articles written by [JB]. These articles were to lead to the publishers of the four newspapers in question being cited [by the Court of Session] for contempt of court, and [JB] (whose identity as the author was not disclosed) was to be instructed to act for John Donaldson, one of the publishers of The Edinburgh Advertiser’ (BEJ, p. 55).

158

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 158

27/02/23 6:13 PM

16 april 1767 John Donaldson was the younger brother of the Edinburgh bookseller Alexander Donaldson (for whom, see p. 314 n. 1). The offending newspaper articles had ‘explicitly treated Dorando as an allegory of the Douglas Cause’ (Earlier Years, p. 332). In what Pottle has described as ‘the most impudent act of a life not unremarkable for impudent actions’ (ibid., p. 333), JB would present a Memorial containing suitable apologies and excuses for the actions of The Edinburgh Advertiser. Although JB’s identity as author of many of the newspaper items in question was not disclosed, the Court ‘can hardly have been in doubt as to the identity of the real culprit’ (ibid.). The printed Memorial, dated 13 July 1767 and extending to eight pages (Houghton

Library Hyde Collection 2003J-JB18), is transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 337–42. The outcome was that the publishers of the four newspapers who had been cited ‘were dismissed with a rebuke’, and JB, ‘in a tone of demure sarcasm’, would report the proceedings in The Edinburgh Advertiser for 28 July. JB’s report was reprinted in Lond. Chron., 1–3 Sept. 1767 (Earlier Years, pp. 334 and 540). 9. The Rev. James Young (d. 1795, aged eighty-four), ordained minister of New Cumnock parish, in the Kyle district of Ayrshire, 3 May 1758. In 1762, he married Elizabeth Hunter (d. 1825), daughter of Robert Hunter, minister of Kirkconnel parish (for whom, see p. 180 n. 10) (Fasti Scot. iii. 27).

Wednesday 15 April You was in great vigour of genius, & in the library you dictated Dorando. You thought it excellent. Mr. Brown when writing it, often was struck with admiration, & cried that’s grand. You considered it as an elegant mark of your attachment to the family of Douglas. You did nothing to Corsica. Mr. Andrew Mitchell was here.1 1. Sir Andrew Mitchell (1708–71), diplomat, admitted advocate 24 Nov. 1736, called to the English Bar 1738, private secretary in 1741 to John Hay (c. 1695–1762), 4th Marquis of Tweeddale, under-secretary for Scotland 1742–46, M.P. Aberdeenshire 1747–54, M.P. Elgin Burghs 1755–71, appointed Minister to Prussia 1756, promoted to rank of Minister Plenipotentiary 1760 and Envoy-Extraordinary and -plenipotentiary 1766, knighted 1765 (Oxford DNB; Sedgwick, ii. 261; Scots Peer. viii. 464). ‘Mitchell was the most successful British representative in Berlin during the entire eighteenth century’ and

his ‘contribution to the smooth operation of the Anglo-Prussian partnership during the early years of the Seven Years’ War was considerable’ (Oxford DNB). He became a close friend of the King of Prussia, Frederick the Great, who ‘took a liking to the bluff, straightforward, and humorous Scot’ (ibid.). Mitchell was a friend of JB’s father (From Lord Auchinleck, 2 Apr. 1764 (Yale MS. C 225)). JB had socialized with Mitchell during JB’s visit to Berlin while on his travels in Germany and had found Mitchell to be ‘a knowing amiable easy man’ and ‘very polite’ (Journ. 8 July 1764, Journ. 1, p. 30).

Thursday 16 April Waterhead breakfasted.1 You & He agreed that venereal disorders do not hurt the constitution. Only severe cures do. There may be a good deal in this. But 159

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 159

27/02/23 6:13 PM

16 april 1767 Water[head] & I have both been wild, so are not impartial Judges; for no doubt such disorders do harm.2 Mr. Mitchell & I & Knockroon3 rode up to Cumnock to the roup of Dalblair. I dined in Mrs. Johnston’s.4 The Trustees were hearty. Sundrum was there.5 There was a kind of aukwardness when He & I who had formerly travelled pretty much in the same way, & had now taken so very different roads, met again. I was as much composed as I could wish to be. I felt myself insensibly grown up. About four We had the roup. Overton made at first an offer of £2400. It had been set up at £2000. I bid £10 more. I sat as if pretty indifferent, but was very anxious, till at last it fell to me. The Company then took me by the hand as Dalblair. We went up stairs, & I gave them a Bowl of Punch. Polosh6 said He would give me £500 for my bargain & if I had not bid, He would have given a great deal more. So said Overton[,] perhaps in earnest. So said several. This shewed the influence of the family of Auchinleck. It was most fortunately conducted. Had Overton bid a small sum they never would have let it go for that, the Ice would have been broke, & when once they had begun to bid, they would have gone to their utmost stretch. Or had I bid £100 more as I intended I should have paid £90 more. Over & above the price[,] I was burdened with an annuity of £25 a year to young James Gib’s Wife.7 Which however I believe may be compounded for £80 — at any rate the price cannot be more than £2500. I drank tea at Dr. Johnston’s, from whence I wrote to David acquainting him of my purchase.8 When I came home I found my Father in the Library. He imagined Dalblair would be bought by the Earl of Drumfries.9 But I told him It’s our own & the price. He took me by the hand as Dalblair & was very well pleased.10 1. James McAdam, Laird of Waterhead. 2. MS. ‘Waterhead breakfasted . . . such disorders do harm’ scored off with a modern pen. 3. John Boswell (1741–1805) of Knockroon (in the parish of Auchinleck, Ayrshire (Ayrshire, p. 302)), a distant cousin of JB’s (Ominous Years, Chart II, p. 375). He was a writer practising in Ayr and had been admitted notary public on 4 Aug. 1764. He was later a member of the Society of Writers in Ayr 1773, and was admitted burgess and guild brother of Irvine 1782 (LPJB 2, p. 411; Finlay, i. 319–20, No. 1699). JB sometimes referred to him as ‘Young Knockroon’ as he was heir to the estate of his mother, Margaret Fergusson, who was thus ‘of Knockroon’ (Corr. 1, p. 251 n. 1). He ‘did eventually inherit the estate on the death of his mother (c. 1788), but as he had been one of the unfortunate

partners . . . ruined by the failure of the Ayr Bank (Douglas, Heron & Co.) in 1772 . . . the estate had to be sold for the benefit of the bank’s creditors. The purchaser (for £2,500) was JB himself, because his pride of family made him reluctant to see this old Boswell estate pass into the hands of a stranger. His own circumstances were straitened at the time (winter 1790–91) and only £1,500 could be raised by a mortgage on the property, so in effect he laid out the whole of his hoped-for profits on his soon-to-be-published Life of Samuel Johnson in support of the prestige of the Boswell family (To Bruce Campbell, 16 Sept. 1790; To Edmond Malone, 29 Jan. 1791)’ (ibid.). See also Corr. 10, p. lxxix. 4. Not certainly identified. Possibly the wife of Daniel Johnston, Mary, whose surname is spelled variously in the OPR records as Macky, McKie and Mackie. She and Johnston married in Glasgow (her

160

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 160

27/02/23 6:13 PM

16 april 1767 name recorded as ‘Mary Macky’) in Nov. 1751 (OPRBM). The baptisms of eight children are recorded at Old Cumnock between 1754 and 1768, including a son born on 27 Mar., less than three weeks before this diary entry (OPRBB). After Daniel Johnston’s death in 1779, JB would assist her with her affairs (Journ. 2 Sept. 1780, Laird, pp. 237–38), and later would ‘take evidence in a Submission’ between her and Hugh Logan (Journ. 3 Oct. 1781, Laird, p. 399 and n. 7). JB’s use of the expression ‘in Mrs. Johnston’s’, rather than, say, ‘at Mrs. Johnston’s’, and the rest of the content of this entry, seem to suggest that ‘Mrs. Johnston’s’ was a public place, perhaps an inn or tavern, run by her. 5. John Hamilton (1739–1821) of Sundrum (in the parish of Coylton, Ayrshire (Ayrshire, p. 314)). He was ‘for several years Vice-Lieutenant of the County of Ayr, and thirty-six years Convenor’ (Ayr and Wigton, I. i. 248). He ‘owned estates in West Indies, from which he brought a number of negroes to Coylton’ (Ayrshire, p. 314). ‘He and JB had been college mates at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow (University of Edinburgh Matriculation Lists; [Addison, p. 59]). The estates of Auchinleck and Sundrum were not more than ten miles apart, but JB and Hamilton were not close friends’ (Corr. 5, p. 50 n. 3). 6. Hugh Mitchell of Polosh (or Pollosh or Pollach or Pollock), a farm in the parish of New Cumnock, Ayrshire (Ayrshire, p. 345; Corr. 7, p. 197 n. 1; Journ. 4 June 1779, Laird, p. 106 and n. 2). 7. The lands of Dalblair had been acquired from the Cochranes of Waterside in 1733 by James Gibb, originally in Lithins (or Lithans), New Cumnock. In 1753, he disponed them to his second son, James Gibb (b. 1729 in New Cumnock (OPRBB)), who, in 1765, with the consent of his father, had conveyed them to trustees. James Gibb the younger’s wife is unidentified. It appears that, under the terms of the 1765 conveyance, she was

entitled to an annuity of £25, for which amount JB as the new proprietor will have continuing responsibility (Ayrshire, p. 286; Ayr and Wigton, I. i. 201). 8. David received the letter (not reported) in Edinburgh on 20 Apr. and wrote back immediately to commend JB: ‘I have the pleasure of yours this morning, and though I have but little to communicate to you, yet I cannot help thus early congratulating you upon the noble acquisition you have made’ (Yale MS. C 492). 9. As noted on p. 101 n. 2 above, the Auchinleck and Dumfries estates adjoined each other. 10. Lord Auchinleck ‘did not continue to be so well pleased’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 61 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 57 n. 3). Although JB would raise the necessary funds to pay the purchase price of Dalblair by borrowing £2,000 and granting a heritable security over the property for that sum, and also borrowing £500 from Lord Marischal (for whom, see pp. 179–80 n. 2) on the strength of a personal bond, the ‘beneficiaries of the sale were a group of creditors with confused claims, and the trustees . . . allowed [JB] to hold the money on demand’ (Extremes, p. 38 n. 8). ‘This’, as JB would record in his journal on 17 Nov. 1775, ‘was unlucky for me, for it left me the command of the money which I had borrowed. I indeed soon paid up £1,400. But the remainder I dissipated . . . I found now that . . . I was in debt between twelve and thirteen hundred pounds to Dalblair’s trustees, and . . . was owing about £200 more. My father was bound along with me for the price of Dalblair, and he spoke of it today with dissatisfaction’ (Journ. 17 Nov. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 182). The following day JB would record: ‘I was obliged to hear an unpleasing recapitulation of my extravagance.’ However, Lord Auchinleck agreed to pay £1,000 of the debt and JB undertook to pay the balance (Journ. 18 Nov. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 184). For later developments, see Corr. 10, p. lxxix, p. 113 nn. 5–9.

161

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 161

27/02/23 6:13 PM

17 april 1767

Friday 17 April At Breakfast my Father treated me with some fine honey, for, says he[,] you are a stranger laird1 — a parish laird. I finished Mckenzie2 — At night read it to my Father. I was wrong towards the end. But upon the whole He thought it a good paper. 1. MS. ‘a stranger laird — ’ interlined. 2. That is, the Information in the case of Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Gairloch v.

Hector Mackenzie, younger, of Gairloch, and Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle (for which, see pp. 156–58 nn. 1 and 2).

Saturday 18 April Corsica advanced. Mr. Brown went home. Sent Dorando to Foulis.1 Imagined he might perhaps scruple to publish so strong an Allusion to the Douglas Cause.2 Left him to himself. 1. Robert Foulis (1707–76), printer and bookseller in Glasgow in partnership with his brother Andrew Foulis (1712–75). ‘They printed some 586 editions together during their active partnership’ (Oxford DNB), including works by a particularly wide range of classical authors. One of their most renowned publications was the fourvolume edition of the works of Homer published in 1756–58.

2. ‘Any published ex parte handling of the cause before the judges had rendered their decision would have been punishable as contempt of court’ (Earlier Years, p. 323). JB hoped that Dorando, being allegorical, would avoid censure. As later diary entries show, Foulis did decide to proceed with the printing of Dorando, but he would indeed ‘scruple’ about certain aspects of JB’s allegory as originally sent to him (see pp. 167–68 n. 3).

Sunday 19 April Mr. R. Aiken1 with us, between sermons. He came to Auchinleck & supt with us. After he went had our Greek2 & Contemplatio Mortis & immortalitatis.3 1. Robert Aiken (or Aitken), writer in Edinburgh, Surveyor of Taxes for Ayrshire 1759, later admitted notary public 7 Aug. 1777, Dean of Society of Writers in Ayr 1787 (LPJB 2, p. 411; Finlay, ii. 46, No. 2123). 2. That is, the Greek New Testament.

3. Contemplatio Mortis et Immortalitatis by Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester. This work is not listed in Margaret Boswell’s catalogue of the Auchinleck library (c. 1783), nor in the catalogue in Boswell’s Books. The work was first published in London in 1631. There was a fourth impression, much enlarged, in 1638.

Monday 20 April Corsica advanced. At night I began to write an account of the Boswells from my Father’s dictating.1 162

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 162

27/02/23 6:13 PM

23 april 1767 1. A neatly written history in JB’s hand of the Boswell family of Auchinleck, probably a fair copy of the notes JB

here reports having made from his father’s dictation, is now in the Hyde Collection, Houghton Library, Hyde Case 9.

Tuesday 21 April Corsica still understood to advance. Also much entertained with the Douglas Cause. Studied today Godefroi by Pursuers.1 At night came Captain McAdam2 and Mr. R. Aiken. Felt a kind of wildness & aukward reluctance to be in Society. Tis in the family. 1. It was argued for the Duke of Hamilton that at the time when Lady Jane Douglas was supposed to be lying in at a different house in Paris, she was actually at the Hotel de Chalons, Rue St. Martin, kept by M. Godefroi. Several members of Godefroi’s family ‘testified that this was so, and his imperfectly kept house books were called into evidence to support the theory of this alibi, on which much of the case turned’ (Douglas Cause, p. 32). 2. James McAdam (1746–c. 1767), eldest son of James McAdam of Waterhead and Susannah Cochrane. JB had referred to him as ‘Captain’ even in 1762 (Journ.

14 Sept. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 46), but this was a term used by JB generally for junior officers (see p. 99 n. 8). McAdam has not been traced in any Army List for the period 1760 to 1766, but he is believed to have served as a Lt. in the 25th Regt. of Foot in Gibraltar and to have died in London in about 1767 (McClure, ‘James McAdam’, p. 13 and nn. 30 and 31). His mother was granddaughter of Sir John Cochrane (d. 1707) of Ochiltree, Knight (Scots Peer. iii. 346 and 348; McClure, ‘James McAdam’, pp. 9 and 11), and he and JB were therefore ‘cousins’ (Harvest Jaunt, p. 46 n. 1).

Wednesday 22 April Corsica still[.] [R]ead Godefroi by Defender. Amazingly strong. Captain McAdam & Fingland dined. At night continued Account of Boswells — very happy.

Thursday 23 April Corsica advanced. Mr. Dun[,] Mr. Hugh Campbell1 & Mr. Smyton the seceding Minister2 dined. The Seceder was jocular upon the established Minister.3 Mr. Dun went home after tea — Mr. Smyton was my Client, so had a right to my time.4 I went through his cause to him. It was curious to find myself the grave Counsellor of an old seceding Minister with his mind full of Presbyterian notions about the Covenant[,] the Act & Testimony &c.5 At night He & I had a long tête á tête. I led him into metaphysical enquiry. I talked of original Sin. I argued in defence of the Metempsychosis or of a Præexistence. I objected that indeed this could hardly be as there is to be a resurection. Now in this state we know nothing of spirit. All that I know of a Person is an animated Body. If I do not see the animated bodies of my friends at the Resurection, I cannot know them. 163

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 163

27/02/23 6:13 PM

23 april 1767 Now if there is but one soul which has animated a variety of bodies, there must in every generation be numbers a wanting at the last day; for not only does the same soul serve different bodies, but has different accidents & fills different spheres in life. To this I answered myself that the Resurection is a doctrine exceedingly dark. That in creeds we find the resurection of the body; but that the Scriptures do not expressly contain it. Paul[,] in order to give some satisfaction to the curiosity of the Corinthians[,] says it is sown in corruption[,] it is raised in incorruption — it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.6 And having illustrated this with a comparison to grain He says And that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body which shall be.7 Therefore I suppose no Resurection of the body in conformity with flesh & blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of heaven8 & with at the Resurection there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage.9 Now may it not be thus? A soul darts it’s view backward through all the stages of it’s existence[;] the earthy frames are totally forgot & the spirits recollect each other by mutual ideas. A spirit remembers having been in different states of life as a man recollects Infancy[,] youth & manhood & as it is by a communication of ideas only that spirits shall recollect each other, the spirits of every age will find their companions & friends in this spiritual intercourse. Only throw body out of the question & all is easy. Suppose the ideas of Alexander the Great and Luther to be repeated by the same spirit, those spirits who retain the ideas of Alexander’s Courtiers & those who retain the ideas of the first Reformers10 will find corresponding communications. The æthereal spirit[,] the air[,] affects us with sensations both of cold & of heat. We do not look for a distinct body out of which the qualities producing11 each of these sensations must issue. Mr. Smyton was struck with my subtile Philosophy. He defended himself by some abstract doctrines of the Schoolmen,12 & I let him off. I found He had afterwards said to James Bruce13 that He had conversed with many, but He had never found a Gentleman who had such a foundation & if I lived I must be a very great man. 1. Hugh Campbell of Mayfield. 2. David Smyton (or Smytane or Smeaton) (d. 1788), minister of the Associate Congregation of Anti-Burgher Seceders (one of the dissenting Presbyterian churches formed after the secession of 1740) at Kilmaurs, in the parish of Kilmaurs, in the Cunninghame district of Ayrshire. He preached at the meetinghouse there from 1740, ‘but in 1783, after a dispute with regard to the correct form of holding communion, he either was expelled by, or resigned from, the Anti-Burgher Synod. He continued to preach to that part of the congregation which followed him until his death’ (LPJB 1, p. 47, LPJB 2, p.

xiii; see also Stat. Acct. Scot., vi. 336–37; Robertson, pp. 387–88). For the secession churches, see Smout, pp. 234–36. 3. The Rev. William Coates (or Coatts) (d. 1777), who had been presented to the parish of Kilmaurs in 1735, ‘but owing to strong opposition to his settlement’ he would not be ordained until 3 May 1777 (Fasti Scot. iii. 114). 4. David Smyton, who was a party to the case of Hugh Kerr v. Margaret and Lilias Thomson, in which JB acted for the defenders. Smyton was called as husband to Margaret Thomson. ‘In those days, a husband was the curator of his wife; and as a general rule, no action could be raised by

164

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 164

27/02/23 6:13 PM

23 april 1767 or against her without the husband being made a party to the action’ (LPJB 1, p. 45 n. 179). ‘The pursuer was a “writer” in Paisley and was also a sheriff-depute substitute in Renfrewshire. The position was that the pursuer and the [principal] defenders, who were his aunts, had succeeded to the estate of the [principal] defenders’ late father as “heirs-portioners”. In the pursuer’s case, he had succeeded as representative of his late mother, who was the deceased’s eldest daughter but had predeceased him many years before. The deceased was the Reverend Hugh Thomson, former Minister of the Gospel at Kilmaurs [M.A. (Edinburgh, 1685), ordained minister of Kilmaurs 1691, d. 1731 (Fasti Scot. iii. 114)] . . . The pursuer claimed that, as representative of his mother, he was entitled to the right which he maintained she had acquired as eldest heir-portioner to what was called a præcipuum, that is, a right to succeed to the deceased’s principal mansion-house. He claimed this in addition to his share of the remainder of the estate which he was entitled to along with his aunts. [JB] argued that there was no good basis for awarding a præcipuum in this case’ (LPJB 1, p. 44). JB’s manuscript Memorial for Margaret Thomson and Lilias Thomson and their husbands, drafted in 1767 and extending to seven pages in the handwriting of an unidentified clerk (NRS CS228/K/2/19), is transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 45–47. The judge in the case, Lord Barjarg (James Erskine (1723–96), admitted advocate 6 Dec. 1743, appointed sheriff-depute of Perthshire 1748, Baron of Exchequer 1754, KnightMarshall of Scotland 1758 and Lord of Session (as Lord Barjarg) 18 June 1761, later Lord Alva (1772) (College of Justice, p. 526)), ‘took almost five months to make a decision on this matter, but eventually, on 2 July 1767, he was to pronounce an interlocutor finding that in the circumstances, and particularly in view of the terms of a deed which had been executed by the Reverend Hugh Thomson and his daughters in 1730, there was no place for a præcipuum.

In the meantime, while waiting for Lord Barjarg’s opinion on this point, [JB] felt compelled to proceed to the Inner House by way of [a] reclaiming petition against an interlocutor of Lord Barjarg dated 6 February 1767, in which his Lordship allowed the whole property to be sett (that is, leased) in one parcel by way of public roup. This was very much against the interests of one of the sisters, Margaret Thomson, who resided at the mansion house [at Hill of Kilmaurs] with her husband, David Smyton’ (LPJB 1, p. 47). JB’s manuscript reclaiming petition, dated 19 Feb. 1767 and extending to eight pages in the handwriting of an unidentified clerk (NRS CS228/K/2/19), is transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 47–49. On page 1 of the reclaiming petition (LPJB 1, p. 48) JB stated: ‘[A]s Mr Hugh has taken it much amiss that his aunts will not be so indulgent as to honour him in this praecipuum and allow him to think himself a great prince, he seems determined to be as Cross to them as he can: And as Mr David Smyton is presently in possession of the Hill of Kilmaurs Mr Hugh thinks it would be very fine if he could get that Reverend Gentleman & his Spouse turned away without warning and even between terms. Therefore the point with him is strenuously to insist That the Lands which are the subject of this process should be immediately sett by publick roup.’ On pages 6–7 (LPJB 1, pp. 48–49) JB went on to say: ‘It is hoped your petitioners will be forgiven to say That they have suffered much anxiety and Vexation from Mr Hugh who is really a very undutifull young man. If he would only have given up his fancy for a praecipuum your petitioners offered to have the Lands amicably divided on the fairest terms for their nephew by honest men in the parish whom they would have allowed Him to Chuse himself. But this he would not comply with. He is a Limb of the Law and seems uncommonly keen to have a plea. It is evident that he has imbibed nothing of . . . that Justice which ought to be Cultivated between near relations, but he forces his aunts & their

165

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 165

27/02/23 6:13 PM

23 april 1767 husbands into this Court, litigates every point with them, throws out every injurious insinuation against them and even persists in supporting what your petitioners humbly apprehend is untenible.’ JB’s reclaiming petition ‘met with a measure of success, for on 11 March 1767 the Inner House found that David Smyton and his wife ought to be allowed to retain possession of the mansion house until the following Whitsunday [NRS CS228/K/2/19]’ (LPJB 1, p. 49). 5. The original secession from the Church of Scotland, as established in 1690 following the 1688 Revolution, came about in 1733 when the Associate Presbytery was formed. The seceders ‘produced a “Judicial Testimony” in which they declaimed against the errors and defections of the Post-Revolution Church’ (Burleigh, p. 282); and, in 1743, they ‘renewed with great solemnity the Covenants of the last century’ (Ramsay, ii. 10), that is, the National Covenant of 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. The full title of the ‘Judicial Testimony’, enacted in Dec. 1736, was ‘Act, Declaration and Testimony: For the Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, and Gov-

ernment of the Church of Scotland; agreeable to the word of God, the Confession of Faith, the National Covenant of Scotland, and the Solemn League and Covenant of the Three Nations: And Against several Steps of Defection from the Same, Both in Former and Present Times’. For a full text of the Judicial Testimony, see Gib, i. 53ff. 6. 1 Corinthians 15: 42 and 15: 44. 7. 1 Corinthians 15: 37. 8. 1 Corinthians 15: 50. 9. Matthew 22: 30. 10. That is, the pioneers of the Reformation. JB records that while in Wittenberg (in Saxony) in Sept. 1764 he visited the old church in which Martin Luther (1483–1546) ‘first preached the Reformation’ (Journ. 30 Sept. 1764, Journ. 1, p. 132). JB also records that while in Leipzig in Oct. 1764 he went to the University library, where, ‘in a true classical humour’, he saw Luther’s bible (Journ. 1, p. 143). 11. MS. ‘the qualities producing’ interlined. 12. Scholars versed in medieval theology. 13. The overseer at Auchinleck.

Friday 24 April My Father & I went to the burial of The Justice Clerk’s Lady.1 I was not affected by such solemn feelings as I used to be at burials. I did not see the rest so affected. A woman had payed the common debt to Nature & we interred her decently; that was all. We had so heavy a rain, that few of us came out of our chaises to go into the Isle.2 My Father & I sat snug. We came home through the Trabeoch.3 At night many letters [ — ] great packet from Temple, Curious &c.4 1. Thomas Miller of Barskimming, the Lord Justice-Clerk, was an Ayrshire neighbour of the Boswells (Barskimming being at the boundary between Stair and Mauchline parishes (OGS, i. 132)). The funeral was of his first wife, Margaret (Murdoch) (1733– 67), whom he had married on 16 Apr. 1752 (Fac. Adv., p. 150). She ‘was the eldest daughter of John Murdoch (1709–76) of Rosebank . . . , a prosperous tobacco mer-

chant and Lord Provost of Glasgow, and his wife, Margaret (Lang)’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 436 n. 2). 2. ‘The aisle . . . was often used as a burial place for the laird’s family. The burial probably took place in the family vault at Stair church’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 65 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 60 n. 3). 3. That is, the Trabboch, a barony in Ochiltree parish, Ayrshire, consisting of

166

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 166

27/02/23 6:13 PM

27 april 1767 moorland and a mill (Corr. 8, pp. 142 n. 1, 157 n. 8, 227). 4. JB received two letters from WJT, one dated 13 Apr. and the other 14 Apr., and possibly an earlier letter of some length (not reported) (Corr. 6, pp. 183–86). The letter of 13 Apr. mentioned WJT’s new twenty-two-year-old maid-servant who

was ‘the very picture of health’. ‘I cannot get this girl out of my head. How I despise myself!’ lamented WJT (ibid., p. 184). But in his letter of 14 Apr. he reported: ‘To-day I think the girl very ordinary, her features coarse, far too much red in her face, besides she cannot write. Never was there such folly’ (ibid., p. 185).

Saturday 25 April Continued Corsica. All went well on.

Sunday 26 April Had a short return of gloom. But it soon went off. Amazing change of constitution. At night we read our Greek Chapters.

Monday 27 April Corsica went on pleasantly[.] [A]fter dinner I got a letter from ––––1 that the black Boy &c.2 I was very composed — half delighted to obtain what I had wished, And half vexed, to think of the expence &c [ — ] a curious example of the vanity of human wishes. A man loves a woman to distraction. He would give the world to have a child by her. It does not appear — He suffers — He quits his angel. His love cools — He hears She is pregnant. O world[,] world — But I resolved to behave with honour & generosity & pleased my fancy with a thousand airy plans. I also got a proof of Dorando3 — What a variety of productions! My Father argued with Mr. Connel[,]4 or Rather joked[,] Against reading Books of controversy about Religion. I saw my Father had never been uneasy upon these matters. His System has never been tried. He has had it like a man who has carried his walking stick under his arm being so strong that he has never had occasion to put it to the ground; but had he leaned to it, He might perhaps have been obliged to seek for another, or at least to look well how he put his own to the ground. 1. Mrs. Dodds. 2. MS. ‘black Boy &c’ scored off with a modern pen. Mrs. Dodds had announced that she was with child. She and JB had very dark complexions (which explains JB’s use of the word ‘black’). The child was in fact a girl. On 24 Dec., JB would write to WJT: ‘My black friend has brought me the finest little girl I ever saw. I have named it Sally. It is healthy and strong. I take the greatest care of the Mother; but shall have

her no more in keeping’ (Corr. 6, p. 219). ‘Sally probably died as an infant. Nothing is known of her after 23 June 1769’ (Corr. 6, p. 220 n. 10; see also Introduction, p. 36 and n. 259). 3. Robert Foulis, in a letter (in the hand of an amanuensis) written in Glasgow on 24 Apr. (Yale MS. C 1315), expressed various scruples, such as ‘I don’t like the name Invidoso, it is so near invidioso, and adds nothing to the cause. The spirit

167

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 167

27/02/23 6:13 PM

27 april 1767 of moderation in the conclusion will be better supported by softness of expression throughout.’ JB evidently heeded this advice, for the name ‘Invidoso’ does not appear. Instead, JB uses the name ‘Arvidoso’. In Pottle’s summary, ‘the princely name of Hamilton is degraded to Arvidoso,

a blend presumably intended to convey notions of extensive acres and greed for more’ (Earlier Years, p. 324). 4. Rev. James Connell (d. 1789), M.A. (Glasgow, 1740), ordained minister of Sorn parish, Ayrshire, 26 Oct. 1752 (Ayrshire, p. 123; Fasti Scot. iii. 68).

Tuesday 28 April Baillie Wilson of Kilmarnock & his Son1 came in the morning & as Clients had a claim to my time.2 We walked about. I was very comfortable. At night I received a Packet of papers brought from Holland3 by Captain Kinloch.4 But my Journal was amissing. I was much vexed. I figured it’s being exposed to a hundred ennemies. I wrote immediatly to Mr. Brown at Utrecht,5 & to Mr. Kinloch of Gilmerton[,] the Captain’s Father.6 James Bruce said it would cast up yet.7 So I suppose He would have me not be cast down. Come. A Pun is not a bad thing at times. 1. The summons in the action mentioned in the following note was directed against a number of persons who had served as bailies of Kilmarnock at various times over a number of years up to 1765 and also against persons who had been nominated to serve as bailies in 1766. The list of bailies included a John Wilson, merchant, and a James Wilson, senior, and a James Wilson, junior (Court of Session Extracted Processes, Durie’s Office, 1 Mar. 1769 (NRS CS25)). For a list of all the bailies who served, see McKay, Appendix IX, p. 289. JB’s reference to Bailie Wilson and his son may have been a reference to James Wilson, senior, and James Wilson, junior. In the entry for 4 May, JB records that at Kilmarnock with Wilson, senior, he saw the ‘Manufactory of Carpets – and the Tannerie’. In 1776, JB would refer to Wilson, senior, as ‘merchant in Kilmarnock’ (Journ. 5 Apr. 1776, Ominous Years, p. 319). In 1780, while in Kilmarnock, JB would see ‘the great shoe warehouse of Wilsons and Company’ and would sit a little ‘at Mr. Wilson’s, and [be] introduced to his third wife’ (Journ. 31 Aug. 1780, Laird, p. 237). By 1787, the business was known as James Wilson and Son ‘and shipped shoes, wool-

lens, and other products of its great tanneries and factories to the West Indies, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and other distant points’ (Experiment, p. 156 n. 3). 2. The matter in which JB acted for Bailie Wilson and his son was the case of Earl of Glencairn and William Paterson v. The Magistrates and Town Council of Kilmarnock, in which JB acted for the defenders and would receive instructions on 12 Nov. 1768 to attend a consultation and on 25 Jan. 1769 to draft a Condescendence (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, pp. 403 and 405). The printed Condescendence, dated 24 Feb. 1769 and extending to four pages (Houghton Library EC75. B6578C. 1769b), is transcribed in LPJB 2, pp. 233– 35. In this action, William Cunningham, 12th Earl of Glencairn, sought ‘declarator that he, as superior of the town of Kilmarnock, had “the sole power and privilege of appointing proper persons to exercise the offices of clerk and fiscal, and others dependent on, and belonging to the burgh of barony of Kilmarnock, excepting a townofficer, whom the . . . Bailies and council are specially authorised by their feu-rights to appoint”’ (LPJB 2, p. 232). The Earl had appointed William Paterson (for whom,

168

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 168

27/02/23 6:13 PM

28 april 1767 see p. 152 n. 2) to be town clerk. Paterson, according to the Condescendence, page 2, was the Earl’s ‘man of business, and clerk of his baron court’ (LPJB 2, p. 234). ‘It was contended for the magistrates and town council that the burgh, having purchased their lands and privileges for valuable consideration, had a title to every right formerly competent to the superior, and not expressly excepted [Morison’s Dictionary, 6313–14]’ (LPJB 2, p. 232). On 1 Mar. 1769, the Inner House of the Court of Session would hold that the right of nomination of the clerk and fiscal to the town of Kilmarnock was in the Earl of Glencairn (Morison’s Dictionary, 6316; Court of Session Extracted Processes, Durie’s Office, 1 Mar. 1769 (NRS CS25)). 3. This parcel had been delivered from London to JB’s brother David, who had then sent it on from Edinburgh to Auchinleck (letter of 12 May, Yale MS. C 493). 4. Archibald Gordon Kinloch (d. 1800), who had become an Ensign in the army on 13 Feb. 1762, joined the 65th Regt. of Foot on 3 May 1765, would be promoted to Lt. on 26 Aug. 1767 and promoted to Capt. on 3 June 1774, at which time he was known as Archibald Kinloch Gordon (Army List, 1767, p. 120 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/17); Army List, 1771, p. 120 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/21); and Army List, 1777, p. 122 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/27)). For JB’s use of the term ‘Captain’, see p. 99 n. 8. ‘Archibald succeeded to the [Kinloch] baronetcy in 1795 by shooting his elder brother Francis. He was adjudged insane and confined to the Tolbooth for the rest of his life. See Scots Mag. (July–Aug. 1795) lvii 477–79, 541–43 for a full account of the trial’ (Corr. 5, p. 115 n. 3). 5. ‘The Rev. Robert Brown (1728– 77), Scottish minister of the English (Presbyterian) Church in Utrecht, 1757–77, and British agent at Utrecht, 1763–77 (Fasti Scot. vii. 555; Hardenbroek, i. 390). JB, who found Brown “a very good man in his way” (Notes, 28 Nov. 1763) but at other times

“vulgar and rude” and “too free” (Journ. 31 Jan., 5 Apr. 1764), dined at his house regularly in 1763, where Brown tutored him in French and Greek (Mem. 15 Oct. 1763; Notes, 7 Apr. 1764)’ (Corr. 5, p. 10 n. 1). In a letter to JB dated 27 Jan. 1767, Brown had given a full account of his care of JB’s papers, and the reasons why he was entrusting the carriage of them to Kinloch, ‘who has lived with me these two winters past, is recalled to join his Regiment, sets out tomorrow, and takes your papers in his Cloakbag’ (Corr. 5, p. 114). 6. David Kinloch (c. 1710–95) of Gilmerton (in Haddingtonshire), DeputyGovernor of the British Linen Company, later Bt. 1778 (Comp. Bar. iv. 347; Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 152). JB enclosed this letter (not reported) with one (also not reported) to his brother David, who wrote back to JB in the letter of 12 May (for which, see n. 3 above): ‘On Monday [i.e. 4 May] I received yours informing me of the loss of your journal, which you may well believe gives me a good deal of uneasiness; I carried over your letter immediatly to Mr Kinloch’s house intending to have spoke to him about it myself, but he was not in Town, so I forwarded it to his house near Haddington, and I hope you have either by this time or will very soon receive an answer.’ No record of an answer from Kinloch is known. For Brown’s (unsuccessful) attempt to meet and bring the matter up with Kinloch later this summer, when Brown himself was visiting Scotland, see his letter dated Edinburgh, 6 July 1767 (Corr. 5, pp. 182–83). 7. ‘JB’s Dutch journal, a manuscript of over 500 pages, has never been recovered. For an account of the shipment of JB’s papers from Holland and the loss of his journal, see Holland, [Heinemann pp. ix–x, 349 n. 2, McGraw-Hill] pp. ix–x, 359 n. 5’ (Corr. 5, p. 115 n. 5). The loss of the Dutch journal would long continue to distress JB. In Essay LXVI as ‘The Hypochondriack’ in Lond. Mag. for Mar. 1783, on the topic of ‘Diaries’, he told his readers (in the context of the dangers that can attend diarykeeping) that ‘I left a large parcel of diary

169

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 169

27/02/23 6:13 PM

28 april 1767 in Holland to be sent after me to Britain with other papers. It was fairly written out, and contained many things which I should be very sorry to have communicated except to my most intimate friends; the packages having been loosened, some of the other papers were chafed and spoiled with water, but the Diary was missing. I was sadly vexed, and felt as if a part of my vitals had been separated from me, and all the consolation I received from a very good friend, to whom I wrote in the most earnest anxiety to make enquiry if it could be found any where, was, that he could discover no trace of it, though he had made diligent search in all the little houses [i.e. privies (OED, s.v. ‘little house’, 2)], so trifling did it appear to him. I comfort myself with supposing that it has been totally destroyed in the carrying. For, indeed it is a strange disagreeable thought, that what may be properly enough called so much of one’s mind should be in the possession of a stranger, or perhaps of an enemy’ (Bailey, ii. 262–63). Brown is doubtless the ‘very good friend’ to whom JB refers anonymously. When precisely he made the remark about a search of the ‘little houses’ is not known, but it seems that he and JB met in Edinburgh some time in July (see Corr. 5, p. 183 n. 4). In a letter of 22 Oct., Brown, after his return to Utrecht, would report that he

‘made the strictest enquiry everywhere concerning the packet of papers lost by Capt. Kinloch, but all to no purpose’ (Corr. 5, p. 241). JB evidently did not reply to this letter, and Brown would write on 15 Jan. 1768 that ‘As I am informed Capt. Kinloch has been at home for some time past, I make no doubt but you have seen him, and that he has himself explained to you the channel by which he forwarded your papers from London’ (Corr. 7, p. 6). No record of a meeting between JB and either Kinloch or his father has survived. JB in his letter to his brother David must have communicated the detail that ‘the packages having been loosened, some of the other papers were chafed and spoiled with water’, since David in his letter of 12 May offered the opinion that if the parcel ‘has been opened, I think it most probable it has been done by the Custom house officers’. But in F. A. Pottle’s summary, there is ‘no certain evidence that [Kinloch] even brought [JB’s journal] from Holland himself . . . The present state of the evidence indicates that it was lost somewhere between Utrecht and London, but [JB] seems not to have been able to free himself completely of a suspicion that through Brown’s carelessness it had been mislaid or destroyed before the parcel was made up’ (Holland, Heinemann p. 349 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 359 n. 5).

Wednesday 29 April Corsica advanced.

Thursday 30 April Corsica advanced.

Friday 1 May Corsica advanced.

Saturday 2 May My Father was to have gone with me to Lainshaw.1 But he was not quite well. I rode to it. I dined at Treesbank.2 A noble hearty meeting with the honest 170

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 170

27/02/23 6:13 PM

2 may 1767 Laird.3 I then called at Hill of Kilmares & saw Mr. Smeaton & his Wife.4 I was as sollid & sagacious as I could wish. But I dont know how, I have not the vivid feelings of satisfaction that I expected. Well is not this the nil admirari of Horace[?] [ — ] the prope5 res una[,] Solaque quæ possit facere ac servare beatum?6 Lainshaw at night. Easy & happy.7 1. For Lainshaw (otherwise known as Linshaw (Ayrshire, p. 304)), see p. 82 n. 5. The estate, about 17 miles north-west of Auchinleck (map of Ayrshire in OGS, i.), was greatly encumbered financially (Earlier Years, p. 402). JB would long retain feelings of fondness for it, and on a visit in 1776, when it became apparent that the estate would have to be sold, would report that ‘My heart warmed to the place where I married my dearest life; my spirits rose and I schemed buying the estate and keeping the house and fields about it . . . I had a secret fanciful pleasure in thinking that my wife might be Lady Lainshaw, and perhaps Veronica [Veronica Boswell (1773–95), eldest surviving child of the Boswells’ marriage] be made heiress of it’ (Journ. 24 Sept. 1776, Extremes, p. 33). But nothing would come of these ‘fanciful’ hopes, and on 2 Dec. 1777, he would be ‘Melancholy to think of Lainshaw to be sold’ (Journ. 2 Dec. 1777, Extremes, p. 197). It would be sold in Edinburgh by public roup in a judicial sale on 15 July 1779, saddening both JB and his wife: ‘While the macer was calling out, “The lands and estate of Lainshaw,” I felt as if I were stunned by some dismal, wonderful casualty.’ Later, at home, MM ‘went into her own room a little and shed tears. I could almost have done the same’ (Journ. 15 July 1779, Laird, p. 120). The purchaser would be William Cuninghame of Bridgehouse, who had made a fortune in the tobacco trade (Laird, p. 120 n. 2). 2. An estate in Riccarton parish in the Kyle district of Ayrshire, about 10 miles north-west of Auchinleck (OGS,

vi. 450; map of Ayrshire in OGS, i.; Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 655–57; Armstrongs’ Map of Ayrshire). The mansion, ‘which was merely a plain manor-house’, was built in about 1672, ‘part of an old tower then standing having been incorporated in the building’ (Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire). 3. James Campbell of Treesbank. 4. David Smyton and his wife, Margaret Thomson. Although the Court of Session’s interlocutor of 11 Mar. 1767 in the case of Hugh Kerr v. Margaret and Lilias Thomson (for which, see pp. 164–66 n. 4) found that Smyton and his wife could retain possession of the mansion house of Hill of Kilmaurs, this was only until Whitsunday (i.e. 15 May). 5. MS. Letter at end of ‘prope’ deleted. Perhaps ‘s’. 6. ‘“To admire nothing [is] almost the one and only thing to make and keep a man contented” (altered from Epistles, I. vi. 1–2)’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 69 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 64 n. 9). MS. ‘beatum’ interlined. 7. JB’s future wife, Margaret Montgomerie, was presumably at Lainshaw at the time of JB’s visit. As Pottle observes (Earlier Years, p. 404), it is curious that before the spring of 1769, even though JB subsequently often referred to her as ‘my valuable friend’ and told WJT that ‘her person is to me the most desireable that I ever saw’ (To WJT, 3 May 1769, Corr. 6, p. 246), JB hardly mentions her in his journal, ‘and when she is mentioned, it is generally only in the most casual manner, not as though

171

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 171

27/02/23 6:13 PM

2 may 1767 she caused the least emotional excitement, not even as though she were a valuable friend’. This may seem particularly odd in view of the fact that JB told WJT that

‘she & I have allways been in the greatest intimacy’ (ibid.), but perhaps his reticence actually reflects the strength of his feelings and regard for her.

Sunday 3 May Stewarton Church1 all day.2 Many reflections on old Stories.3 But calm & not shocked with the course of nature. Had thought I would be in love [ — ] was so.4 Stewarthall5 supped with us. A genteel lively man. At night a long walk — The Captain6 & I a sollid serious conversation. Relished much his strong sense. Curious Pun at Supper to Ladies. Is Cod light?7 O yes. Fish is light. Any thing that swims is light. Mrs –––– was so agreable you formed romantic schemes. x x x x.8 Lainshaw was really comfortable & orderly.9 You had no dreary ideas of death.10 All is soon easy & well again by a Succession of good people. 1. For the parish of Stewarton, see p. 82 n. 5. The parish church was built in 1696 and stood in what was then the ‘mere obscure village’ of Stewarton (OGS, vi. 380). 2. That is, JB attended the morning service and the afternoon service, each of which would probably have been about two to two and a half hours long. Between the services, it was customary for ‘those who were near home [to return] for a spare refreshment, for which nothing was cooked that day; others went to the ale-house, which was open on Sabbath to worshippers; while others remained in the kirkyard or in the kirk’ (Graham, SLSEC, p. 315). 3. For the old stories, see the entry for 9 May and n. 1. 4. With Jean (Maxwell) Montgomerie, widow of James Montgomerie of Lainshaw. In the entry for 8 May, JB refers to her as ‘La vedova’ (the widow). 5. Archibald Stewart (d. 1779) of Stewarthall in Stirlingshire, son of Walter Stewart of Stewarthall, who was appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland

1720 (Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed., p. 2226; W.S. Register, p. 304, s.v. David Stewart of Stewarthall; Journ. 1 Sept. 1774, Defence, Heinemann p. 304, McGraw-Hill p. 291; OPRDB). After Stewart called on JB in Edinburgh in 1774, JB would remark: ‘As I had never seen him but in the country, he brought strong upon my mind the dreary ideas of wet weather and weary nights which I have endured in Ayrshire, when all things appeared dismal’ (Journ. 17 Aug. 1774, Defence, Heinemann p. 285, McGraw-Hill pp. 272–73). 6. Capt. Alexander MontgomeryCuninghame. 7. A reference to 1 John 1: 5 – ‘God is light.’ 8. ‘These crosses are in the MS. They probably had some meaning to [JB], but what the meaning was it is now impossible to say’ (BP, vii. 126 n. 1). 9. MS. Indecipherable word before ‘orderly’ deleted. Perhaps ends in ‘y’. 10. JB had not visited Lainshaw since the death of James Montgomerie of Lainshaw in Dec. 1766.

Monday 4 May Early this morning some Rioters about meal at Stewarton were with You, being indicted against the Circuit. I counselled them as well as I could & promised to 172

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 172

27/02/23 6:13 PM

4 may 1767 let them know soon what to do.1 The Ladies2 promised to come to Auchinleck. I set out, dined at Kilmarnock with Mr. Wilson.3 Saw Manufactory of Carpets — and the Tannerie. All well. Felt most agreable change of the frame of my mind, as I sat by my Cousins of Sornbeg4 with whom I had formerly been most weak & dreary. 1. The criminal letters were against James Barclay (son of James Barclay, bailie of Stewarton), John Skeoch (son of John Skeoch (d. 1765 (OPRDB)), smith in Stewarton), John Montgomerie (d. 1786 (OPRDB)), mason in Stewarton, Robert Gardiner, wright in Stewarton, Robert Reyburn, bonnet-maker in Goosehill (in the parish of Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire (RCAHMS, site number NS70NE 7)), and James Currie, out-pensioner of Chelsea Hospital, all accused of mobbing and rioting on 26 Feb. 1767 (High Court of Justiciary Processes (NRS JC26/184)). The accused were referred to JB by Capt. Alexander Montgomery-Cuninghame by letter bearing the date 11 May 1767 (Corr. 5, p. 160), but the letter must in fact have been written on or before 4 May. It was alleged that the accused had been part of a mob which had forcibly taken away meal from the premises of a number of mealmongers in Stewarton. As explained by Pottle: ‘The government policy of price supports made it more profitable to export oat and barley flour than to sell it locally. The “rioters”, members of the working class in towns, when nobody would sell them the flour that was the staple of their existence, formed organized mobs to appropriate and sell stocks that were being collected to send out of the country’ (Earlier Years, p. 328). It seems from a letter dated 18 May 1767 from JB’s instructing agent, William Brown (d. c. 1794 (Corr. 5, p. 165 n. 1)), writer in Kilmarnock (admitted notary public 3 Mar. 1767, at that time referred to as a writer in Edinburgh (LPJB 2, p. 412; Finlay, i. 334–35, No. 1776)), that JB advised all of the accused to abscond, for Brown’s letter states: ‘[T]he Stewartoun Rioters have determined to stand trial. They look on a voluntary banishment to be

as bad as a legal one, and by a trial, think there’s a chance for their being acquitted. The moment I received yours an account of it was sent to them, but it seems the best advice will not perswade. I am sorry for it, and shall be sorrier still if their Obstinacy occasions a greater punishment than their absence for a short time from their Wives, Children, Friends, and connections in business might prove’ (Corr. 5, p. 164). According to notes dated 22 May 1767 in the hand of William Brown, the ‘poor & Starved’ inhabitants of Stewarton, ‘ready to perish for want of bread’, had asked James Barclay, bailie of the town, ‘to grant a warrant for bringing Meal to the Market place’. Barclay, being in doubt, applied to Sir David Cuninghame of Corsehill, a justice of the peace, who had stated that he would grant the warrant only if Capt. Alexander Montgomery-Cuninghame, his son, would sign it along with him. Brown’s notes indicate that when Montgomery-Cuninghame stated that he wanted to seek legal advice as to whether or not such a warrant could be granted, the ‘pressing wants of the starved Inhabitants could not admit of delays, but called for immediate relief’, and so the populace demanded that certain mealmongers sell their meal at the market place in Stewarton. Brown’s notes also state that the meal was sold at the desire of the mealmongers, who were paid the price (Yale MS. Lg 9:4, pages 10–13). In these circumstances, the defence’s position was that ‘there was no Mob at all. The whole amounted to no more than a few poor starved people having the spirit, or being necessitated, under sanction of a Publick Magistrate, to demand, and the good fortune to prevail upon Mealmongers to sell a few Bolls of Meal for which they paid full value. So

173

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 173

27/02/23 6:13 PM

4 may 1767 that the present prosecution is altogether oppressive & groundless, and must have proceeded upon wrong information’ (ibid., page 5). 2. Jean Montgomerie, Elisabeth Montgomery-Cuninghame, Mary Mont-

gomerie (for whom, see p. 156 n. 1) and Margaret Montgomerie. 3. For Wilson, see p. 168 n. 1. 4. For Sornbeg, and JB’s distant cousins Hugh Campbell of Mayfield and Bruce Campbell, see p. 142 n. 3.

Tuesday 5 May Very early Set off with James Bruce to see my lands of Dalblair[.] [T]ook up Doctor Johnston at Cumnock. Rode on to Hallglenmuir. A good breakfast. Then Polosh1 arrived & we all proceeded. Good fresh day. Difficult riding. Now & then like to sink. When we came to the foot of Wardlaw2 the Physician[,] as we called him[,] stopt. We made it out to the top [ — ] took a dram of rum. Immense Prospect. Ayr[,] Elza,3 Ben Lomond,4 Jura, Galloway hills[,] Cairnsmuir[,]5 Clydesdale hills. Resolved to erect a pillar here, but must do it without lime as there is none but at a good distance though there is plenty of stone.6 A quarry on the very top of the hill. We then came to the house, a very poor one, but might be repaired.7 Got plenty of bread & milk. It is a noble muir farm; a great extent [ — ] above 3 miles from Wardlaw to the march8 behind Benhill.9 And 2 miles broad. Few places fit for planting. It may be tried on the west point[,] Craigengour. We rode up to Benhill[,] a very pretty hill. Unluckily My Lord Drumfries has one half of it. But I can make a Plantation of a triangular or oval shape. There is in Dalblair variety of muirground.10 A Tup park11 well inclosed. Some arable land near the house, & a few trees which the Snow hurts much. On the Gass water12 there is a Great appearance of lead, large & extensive veins of Spar. It may be a noble quarry in time.13 Drank tea with Polosh at Dornil.14 The hole a pretty snug place.15 1. Hugh Mitchell of Polosh. 2. A hill (1,631 feet) to the north-east of Dalblair farmhouse. 3. That is, Ailsa, i.e. the island of Ailsa Craig. 4. A mountain (3,196 feet) to the east of Loch Lomond. ‘Its isolated position at the southern edge of the Highlands makes Ben Lomond a conspicuous feature from many viewpoints’ (Munros, p. 7). 5. Cairnsmore, a hill (2,612 feet) in Carsphairn parish, north Kirkcudbrightshire. ‘[E]xcepting in one direction, it commands a very extensive panoramic view’ (OGS, i. 213). 6. At the top of Wardlaw there was a round bronze-age cairn, which ‘had been

used as a beacon site, probably over many centuries’ (Love, p. 13). 7. ‘Dalblair [farmhouse] was probably the replacement for Kyle Castle, the old lodge standing to the west of Dalblair farm’ (ibid., p. 55). 8. ‘The boundary-line of a property’ (DSL (SND), 2). 9. Probably the hill properly known as Benalt (1,250 feet), to the east of Dalblair farmhouse. 10. MS. ‘murground’. 11. A ‘field for sheep to graze in’ (DSL (SND)). 12. Gass (or Gasswater), to the north of Dalblair (and, like Dalblair, forming part of the barony of Glenmuir), was acquired as

174

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 174

27/02/23 6:13 PM

6 may 1767 part of the Auchinleck estate in 1767 from Alexander Mitchell of Hallglenmuir (Corr. 8, p. 221). 13. Over the centuries, fireclay has been quarried at Gass, and barium sulphate or barytes has been quarried in the upper Gass Valley (Love, p. 12). Lime and coal working started at Gass in 1768 (Corr. 8, p. 221), and from 1793 limestone would be mined there (ibid., pp. 181–82). In his diary entry for 17 May 1770, Lt. John Boswell records going to see ‘my Father’s Coal and

lime work at the Gass Water’ (Journal of Lt. John Boswell 1769–70 (quoted from a photocopy of the MS. formerly held in the Yale Boswell Editions office; the location of the MS. original is unknown)). 14. That is, Dornal. Part of the barony of Glenmuir adjoining Dalblair on the west, Dornal was owned by Hugh Mitchell of Dornal (fl. 1760–76) (Corr. 8, p. 141 n. 5 and p. 269; Ayr and Wigton, I. i. 204). 15. The ‘Hole’ was part of the estate of Dalblair (Corr. 8, pp. 220–21).

Wednesday 6 May A great Justice Court.1 Crowd at dinner. 1. Lord Auchinleck, along with Lord Kames, was due to sit at the circuit court of the High Court of Justiciary at Jedburgh that day (Scots Mag. June 1767, xxix. 324). However, there was no business before the court that day, and Lord Kames sat on his own and continued the court to the following day, when he again sat on his own (Justiciary Court South Circuit Minute Book (NRS JC12/12, pp. 72–74)). Lord Auchinleck was an Ayrshire justice of the peace, and during the Court of Session’s vacations regularly presided over a court of justices of the peace sitting in his office at Auchinleck. This activity ‘helped to amuse him’, and the court was held ‘in high repute among the country people’. The court ‘did a great deal of business, – the fame of his Lordship’s justice and despatch (to say nothing of his cheapness) having spread far and wide . . . It was indeed rather a court of chancery [i.e. a court proceeding on the basis of equity] than a court of law . . . Some of his ablest brethren were exceedingly hostile to the jurisdiction of justices of peace; whereas it was his opinion that a country gentleman could not be more honourably employed than in taking away differences among his country neighbours’ (Ramsay, i. 166–67). It was said that he was ‘a great friend to unhappy females who had been debauched

by young fellows, that afterwards denied it. He used to say, “I father more bastards than any man in Ayrshire”’ (ibid., p. 166 n. 2). Justices of the peace had ‘extensive powers, including authority to try cases in respect of riots and breaches of the peace, to resolve disputes between masters and servants with regard to wages, to maintain roads and bridges, to enforce laws in relation to beggars and vagrants, and so forth’ (LPJB 1, p. 414). Although not expressly given jurisdiction to determine causes in relation to debt, in practice justices of the peace regarded themselves as having jurisdiction in respect of small debts. As this relieved parties of the considerable expense which would have been incurred by litigating in the sheriff court or Court of Session, this practice, although controversial, was widely considered to be beneficial. On 25 Jan. 1769, when giving his opinion in the case of Adam Miller and Others v. Robert Boyd (for which, see LPJB 2, pp. 67–77), Lord Auchinleck would be recorded as saying: ‘To call men before the Sheriff-court or the Court of Session, in order to obtain payment of a crown [a five-shilling piece] or half a crown, would be a great hardship . . . For these 40 years I have been engaged in determining such small causes as a Justice of Peace.’ Lord Gardenstone, on the other

175

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 175

27/02/23 6:13 PM

6 may 1767 hand, observed: ‘Public expediency and utility is a dubious topic. Every county is not possessed of a man of knowledge and

abilities who will amuse himself in determining small causes’ (Hailes’s Decisions, i. 267–68, quoted in LPJB 2, p. 77 n. 40).

Thursday 7 May Mrs. Reid & Mass1 George2 din’d. In the evening arrived Mrs. Montgomerie[,] Mrs. Cunninghame3 &c4 from Lainshaw. 1. Mass: ‘a title prefixed to the Christian name of a minister of religion’ (Ch. Scots Dict.). 2. The Rev. George Reid and his wife, who, as noted on p. 151 n. 1, was Lord Auchinleck’s first cousin, Jean (or Jane) Campbell, daughter of George Campbell of

Treesbank (for whom, see Ominous Years, Chart VI, p. 379). 3. Elisabeth Montgomery-Cuninghame. 4. ‘&c’ presumably includes JB’s future wife, Margaret Montgomerie, and perhaps also Mary Montgomerie.

Friday 8 May At night1 Sir Adam Fergusson2 & George3 & Prof. Wallace.4 You was quite inamorato5 of La vedova.6 All went well. After Supper Somebody talked of flirtation with a married woman. Nothing but trifles & jests &c. Said My Father ‘Ay[,] ay; They begin wi[’] needles & prins7 & end wi[’] hornd nowt.’8 The best conceit I have heard. The day had past well;9 yet you was uneasy to have company[,] even your own relations. Curious turn. Worthy Sir Adam wondered you was ‘still on Douglas side.’10 The fall of Terni surprised me: but not like this.11 1. MS. The date – ‘(8)’ – and ‘At night’ interlined. 2. Sir Adam Fergusson of Kilkerran. 3. George Wallace, advocate. 4. William Wallace (d. 1786), advocate (admitted 15 Feb. 1752), appointed Professor of Universal History at Edinburgh University, Keeper of the Advocates’ Library 1758, Professor of Scots Law 1765, later sheriff-depute of Ayrshire 1775–86 (Fac. Adv., p. 214). Although at this time JB had some respect for Wallace, he would later take a different view. JB records that, at the meeting of the Faculty of Advocates on 17 Jan. 1775, ‘I intended to make a motion that if the Collector of Decisions [i.e. Wallace] did not publish [decisions of the Court of Session] annually he should forfeit his office . . . He was very much offended, and

told me he did not expect [it] from me . . . At the meeting I rose and said there seemed to be a necessity for some effectual proviso, and wished that some of my senior brethren would suggest one. The Dean [Alexander Lockhart] said it well deserved consideration; but some of Wallace’s friends got the matter slurred over at this time’ (Journ. 17 Jan. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 56). The outcome was that the Faculty recommended that JB and two colleagues – Alexander Elphinstone (1738–95) of Glack, advocate (admitted 28 Feb. 1764), later sheriffdepute of Aberdeenshire 1777–95 (Fac. Adv., p. 66), and George Fergusson (1743– 1827) of Hermand, advocate (admitted 17 Dec. 1765), later appointed Lord of Session as Lord Hermand on 11 July 1799 and Lord Commissioner of Justiciary on 4 Aug. 1808

176

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 176

27/02/23 6:13 PM

9 may 1767 (ibid., p. 70; College of Justice, p. 544) – ‘revise the list of Cases from 1765 to 1769 inclusive . . . and . . . make up therefrom a list of such Cases as may be worth collecting in order the Faculty may consider proper measures for having such cases collected’ (MBFA, p. 258). 5. Inamorato (properly innamorato): enamoured (Italian). 6. La vedova: the widow (Italian). 7. Prins: pins (Scots). 8. ‘A Scottish proverb meaning that those who begin by stealing needles and pins end by stealing nowt (cattle). Lord Auchin-

leck is also alluding, of course, to the horns of the cuckold’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 71 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 66 n. 6). 9. MS. ‘(6)’ before ‘well’ deleted. 10. That is, JB still supported Archibald Douglas in the Douglas Cause, in which Fergusson acted for the Duke of Hamilton (see pp. 105–07 n. 1). 11. On 13 Feb. 1765, during his travels in Italy, JB had viewed the Cascata delle Marmore (the famous cascade of the river Velino) at Terni, and considered it ‘Prodigious wild’ (Mem. 14 Feb. 1765, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 52, McGraw-Hill p. 49).

Saturday 9 May Walked about with Mrs. Cunningham; recalled old Stories. Spoke of the Family Hypochondria quite seriously.1 Saw it was believed in the country. Both you and honest David have a certain pride to think of it to a certain degree. But it would be very bad should it be universally known. There are also two ways of viewing it. Either thus ‘There is a distemper in that family. All crackbrained’ or thus: ‘That Family is remarkable for genius & worth, though they have a cast of Melancholy [ — ] often the attendant of distinguished minds.’ I am now perfectly well upon the whole. Let my actions bear evidence. 1. JB’s paternal grandfather, James Boswell, a successful but ponderous advocate (admitted 9 Dec. 1698), suffered from depression (Fac. Adv., p. 18; Ramsay, i. 160–61; LJ 1762–63, p. 393 n. 1). In JB’s first draft of his ‘Ébauche de ma vie’ (Sketch of My Life), written in 1764 for Rousseau, JB had said of his grandfather ‘Il etoit souvent attaqué d’une Melancolie noire’ (‘[He] was often attacked by black melancholy’) and that after his retirement ‘son humeur noire et les ideès sevêres de Religion qui lui restoient jusques á sa mort otoient en grand parti le repos’ (‘his black humour and the harsh ideas of religion which remained with him to his death robbed him in great part of repose’) (Yale MS. L 1108, Journ. 1, Appendix 2, p. 362; translations taken from Earlier Years, p. 21). The Rev. George Reid would say in 1779 that JB’s grandfather’s ‘melancholy and fretful temper [was] from

his mother’ (Journ. 7 June 1779, Laird, p. 107). His mother was Anna (Hamilton) (for whom, see p. 65 n. 86). In 1780, Reid would tell JB that his grandfather ‘at times in his old age at Auchinleck took strange fancies’ and ‘thought all his sons wished him dead’ (Journ. 10 Sept. 1780, Laird, p. 245). JB felt an affinity with his grandfather: ‘I have . . . a great Anxiety of temper which often renders me uneasy. My Grandfather had it in a very strong degree’ (Journ. 7 Jan. 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 82); and JB would later note that ‘I had a kind of pride in being melancholy and fretful like my grandfather’ (Journ. 10 Feb. 1776, Ominous Years, p. 233). JB’s uncle James (1710–?54), one of Lord Auchinleck’s younger twin brothers, was mentally unstable. He was a writer, but was ‘idle, given to keeping his bed, and finally had to be put in a strait-waistcoat’ (Earlier Years, p. 21; Yale MS. L 1109,

177

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 177

27/02/23 6:13 PM

9 may 1767 5 Dec. 1764). JB’s uncle John, the other of Lord Auchinleck’s younger twin brothers, was decidedly eccentric. And JB’s younger brother John (1743–96) (Oxford DNB, s.v.

James Boswell) suffered intermittent attacks of insanity throughout his life from the age of nineteen (To JJ, 8 Feb. 1763, Corr. 1, p. 44 and n. 3; LJ 1762–63, p. 390 n. 1).

Sunday 10 May Well in Church. At night Mr. Dun1 with us, very comfortable. I was anxious to have the conclusion of my Spanish proofs.2 Dispatch’d Sandie Boswell3 to Ayr. 1. The Rev. John Dun. 2. That is, the proofs of Dorando (for which, see pp. 158–59 n. 8). 3. The index to BP, p. 29, suggests that ‘Sandie Boswell’ was ‘probably written in error for “Sandy Bruce”’, i.e. Alexander Bruce (1752–1829), later gardener at Auchinleck, son of James Bruce, overseer of Auchinleck estate. The youth was being despatched to Ayr because it was the postal sorting office for mail coming to Auchinleck. See Corr. 5, pp. 134–68, for the letters arriving for JB at this period ‘by Ayr’ (or ‘Air’). JB, as he notes, is at this time

keen to have his proofs of Dorando, having sent his manuscript to Foulis in Glasgow (entry for 18 Apr.), and therefore eager to have the parcel collected in Ayr rather than have the added delay of the delivery to Auchinleck House, or risk missing the delivery altogether, as he is due to leave with his father next day for Dumfries for the circuit. It is also probable that he is wishing to conceal the composition and publication of Dorando from his father and does not want him or others in the household to get a sight of the parcel and wonder what it is.

Monday 11 May After having sat up all night for the first time these many months, had bold ideas, but so sollid am I now grown that even a night’s watching moves me not much. My Courier came by seven.1 No proof — but a letter from My Lord Marischal2 — kind — polite — quite foreign — Present of Standish.3 For a moment old ideas revived & you felt warm ambition — love of grandeur — Germany &c &c. Spanish Colonel4 &c &c. But checked yourself & was again Mr. James Boswell of Auchinleck[,] Advocate. All the hurry as usual on setting out on a Journey.5 Dined at New-Cumnock.6 Cavalcade of Cumnock Company. Mr. Dun too & Mr. Young7 & Hallglenmuir. Wettish day. Want of Sleep had hurt you.8 For the first time these many months had any continuance of Hypochondria, but had it full. Saw all things — Judges — Chaises — Men & horses [ — ] all annalised[,] all vain — At Kirkonnell9 the honest Minister & his Wife10 were standing at head11 of their entry with wine & biscuits & strong ale to the Servants. Was pleased to see such hospitality. At Drumlanrig12 we were met by Tarachty13 who carried us to the Castle.14 His Daughter a fine sensible Girl.15 Mrs. Young of Guliehill.16 Glendinning of Partin’s brother,17 two Misses. All well. 1. ‘My Courier’ being the youth (probably Sandie Bruce) whom Boswell

sent to Ayr the day before. As JB’s next sentence notes, the proofs of Dorando had not

178

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 178

27/02/23 6:13 PM

11 may 1767 yet arrived there. Foulis had written from Glasgow to JB on Friday 8 May (Yale MS. C 1316), and there had not been enough time for the letter to reach the postmaster at Ayr. Foulis enclosed ‘two half sheets’ of the printed text, and said that the ‘whole will be finish’d this day’. Yet again, as in his letter of 24 Apr. (see pp. 167–68 n. 3), Foulis urged JB to soften his tone about the Hamilton side: ‘Perhaps you might find means, without hurting your intention, to treat the friends of Arvidoso with greater softness of language. I have my eye on some of them of rank and honour, who might think themselves included, who would feel it.’ 2. From Lord Marischal, 14 Apr. 1767, Corr. 5, pp. 144–45. The letter, a reply to JB’s of 12 Mar. (ibid., pp. 124–25), had been addressed to ‘James Boswell Esqr. of Auchenleck, Edenburg’, with ‘Edenburg’ deleted, and ‘by Air’ added in another hand (ibid., p. 144). George Keith (c. 1693– 1778), 10th Earl Marischal of Scotland, had served Frederick II of Prussia in various diplomatic capacities since 1747. ‘Scion of one of the principal noble families of Scotland, he had joined the Jacobite uprising of 1715 and had been attainted the following year, forfeiting his rights not only to his family’s property but also to his title of nobility. He had nonetheless continued to use his title, styling himself “Earl Marischal” or “Maréchal d’Écosse” while living on the Continent (see Cuthell, i. 34–36, 64; AEN, Actes de Chancellerie, vol. 29; MS. BPUN, 1595). For almost thirty years he had worked for the Stuarts in Spain and France, even leading the unsuccessful “Glenshiel” expedition to recapture Scotland in 1719, but he had become increasingly disenchanted with the Jacobite cause and had refused to take part in the uprising of 1745 (see Journ. 23 July [1764 (Journ. 1, p. 46)]; 6 Dec. [1764 (Journ. 1, pp. 271–73)] and n. 5). Accepting employment from Frederick II in 1747, he had served as his ambassador to France from 1751 to 1754, as governor of the Prussian territory of Neuchâtel from 1754 until his unofficial retirement in 1763,

and as Frederick’s special envoy to Spain in 1759 (Cuthell, i. 244–300, ii. 3–4, 70–73, 101, 162). In return for diplomatic services to the British Court in 1759 (see Journ. 23 June [1764 (Journ. 1, p. 10)] n. 3), he had been pardoned by George II on 14 Feb. of that year and had been granted permission, by a special act of Parliament passed in Feb. 1762, to inherit and repurchase the family estate of Keith Hall in Aberdeenshire. He had returned to Scotland in 1763 with the intention of settling there and had repurchased several other family estates that were just coming on the market, but finding the Scottish winter too harsh and local rural society too limited, he [left] his native country for good [in 1764] (Cuthell, ii. 70–73, 177, 182–85, 193)’ (Journ. 1, pp. 3–4 n. 6). Lord Marischal then returned to the service of Frederick. In June 1764, while in Utrecht, JB had received letters informing him that his father had arranged for him to travel to Potsdam with Lord Marischal (From Lord Marischal, 25 May 1764, Holland, Heinemann pp. 262–63, McGrawHill pp. 269–70). ‘JB was overjoyed by the news: “Never was a Man happier than I this morning. I was now to travel with a venerable Scots Nobleman who . . . had known intimately Kings and great men of all kinds, and could introduce me with the greatest advantage at courts” (Journ. 4 June 1764). JB and Marischal travelled together to Potsdam by way of the courts of Hanover and Brunswick (Journ. 18 June–2 July 1764)’ (Corr. 5, p. 24 n. 1). In Jan., JB had acted for Marischal in connection with contemplated proceedings in the Exchequer Court against the York Buildings Company (being the company to which Marischal’s forfeited estates had been sold) (Consultation Book, 9 Jan. 1767; LPJB 1, p. 372 and n. 1308 and p. 379 (endnote A)). JB’s fondness for and admiration of the Earl would also be demonstrated when he told WJT in a letter of 8 Nov. 1767 that he intended to name his child by Mrs. Dodds after him if a boy: ‘in a forthnight hence, I expect a young friend who if male, is to be George Keith, after

179

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 179

27/02/23 6:13 PM

11 may 1767 My good Lord Marischal, who has accepted of being his Namefather’ (Corr. 6, p. 213 and n. 5). 3. Lord Marischal’s letter (sent from Potsdam) said that the standish (i.e. inkstand) ‘lay at the custom house till now waitin a boat for Hambourg, it now goes off’ (Corr. 5, p. 145). 4. JB records that during his journey to Potsdam with Lord Marischal in 1764, ‘We talked of the Spaniards. My Don Quixote Humour got up. I said I should be infinitely happy to be a Colonel in the Spanish Service. My Lord amused us with a fine fancifull story of my making a conquest of Portugal, and marrying an Infanta, and afterwards called me constantly the great Colonello’ (Journ. 2 July 1764, Journ. 1, p. 23). 5. JB and his father are setting out to attend the High Court of Justiciary’s Southern Circuit at Dumfries. 6. New Cumnock, a village in New Cumnock parish in the Kyle district of Ayrshire (OGS, ii. 327), about 8 miles southeast of Auchinleck House. 7. The Rev. James Young. 8. This was contrary to JB’s normal experience, for it was a ‘constitutional oddity’ of his that ‘going without sleep, instead of depressing him, often put him in high spirits’ (Grand Tour I, Heinemann p. 88 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 91 n. 9). 9. Kirkconnel, ‘a village and a parish of Nithsdale, [north-west] Dumfriesshire’ (OGS, iv. 417). 10. The Rev. Robert Hunter (1695– 1770), M.A. (Glasgow, 1716), licensed by presbytery of Penpont 5 June 1728, ordained assistant minister (and successor) of Kirkconnel parish 29 Oct. 1747 (Fasti Scot. ii. 320), and his second wife, Marion Bell (d. 1779), whom he married on 4 June 1747 (ibid.). 11. MS. ‘the’ before ‘head’ deleted. 12. An estate ‘in Durisdeer parish, upper Nithsdale, Dumfriesshire, 17 miles [north-west] of Dumfries’ (OGS, ii. 373). 13. John Maxwell (1720–1814) of Terraughty (or Terraughtie), an estate in Tro-

queer parish, Kirkcudbrightshire, about 2½ miles west by south of Dumfries, which he had purchased in 1754 (Book of Carlaverock, i. 587, Chart IV; OGS, vi. 435). 14. Built of pink sandstone, Drumlanrig Castle, the exterior of which was completed in 1689, was erected at enormous cost for William Douglas (1637–95), 1st Duke of Queensberry. This imposing mansion – ‘one of the finest examples in Scotland of the quadrangular mansion of the seventeenth century’ (MacGibbon and Ross, ii. 446) – derives its name from the fact that it ‘crowns the last spur of a drum or long ridge of hill, on the right bank of the Nith’ (OGS, ii. 373). From at least 1356, the barony of Drumlanrig had belonged to the Douglases, and at the time of this journal entry was owned by Charles Douglas (1698–1778), 3rd Duke of Queensberry. After the 3rd Duke’s death the castle was unoccupied for many years and fell into disrepair through neglect, but would be restored to its former state from about 1827 (ibid.). The design of the architect – apparently James Smith (c. 1645–1731) – was influenced by the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh (Dunbar, pp. 74–75), and ‘the overall effect is one of immense dignity and splendour, a unique alliance of the castellated and Renaissance styles in which Scottish Baronial is unexpectedly translated into baroque’ (ibid., p. 75). Thomas Pennant would visit Drumlanrig in 1772 and wrote that the castle was ‘magnificently seated on the side of a hill, an immense mass, embosomed in trees’. To reach the castle, one had to cross ‘a handsome bridge of two arches, of a vast height above the Nith, which fills the bottom of a deep and wooded glen’, and then make ‘a long ascent through a fine and well-planted park’ (Pennant, pp. 121–22). Pennant described the castle as follows: ‘A square building, extending an hundred and forty-five feet in front, with a square tower at each corner, and three small turrets on each: over the entrance is a cupolo [i.e. cupola], whose top is in shape of a vast ducal coronet: within

180

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 180

27/02/23 6:13 PM

12 may 1767 is a court, and at each angle a round tower, each containing a stair-case: every where is a wearysome profusion of hearts carved in stone, the Douglas arms: every window, from the bottom to the third story, is well secured with iron bars; the two principal doors have their grated guards; and the cruel dungeon was not forgot; so that the whole has the appearance of a magnificent state prison’ (ibid., p. 122). 15. John Maxwell of Terraughty had six daughters by his first wife, Agnes Hannay, whom he had married in 1741. His eldest daughter (born before 1749) was Elizabeth; his second daughter, Agnes, was born on 15 July 1749; and his third daughter, Jean, was born on 18 Dec. 1750 (Book of Carlaverock, i. 587, Chart IV). 16. Mary Maxwell Young, widow of John Young of Gulliehill (BP, Index, p. 356). Gulliehill (or Guliehill or Gooliehill), in the parish of Holywood, Nithsdale, west Dumfriesshire, seems to have been so named because it was ‘situated on a rising ground producing much gool’ (Stat. Acct. Scot., iv. 206), gool being the corn-marigold (Ch. Scots Dict.). 17. That is, Charles Glendonwyn, brother, and two of the sisters of William Glendonwyn (d. 1809) of Glendonwyn, whose seat was at Parton (Scots Mag. June

1809, lxxi. 479), a hamlet and a parish of central Kirkcudbrightshire (OGS, v. 159). They were the children of ‘Robert Glendonwyn or Glendoning, of that ilk and Parton’, who had died in Nov. of the previous year (and had been succeeded by William, his eldest surviving son). He had married Mary Neilson, ‘only daughter and heiress of Robert Neilson of Barncalzie’ and Catherine Maxwell (d. 1758), daughter ‘of Alexander Maxwell [d. 1701] of Terraughty, apparent heir-male of the family of Nithsdale’. Three sons (Robert, James and Simon) predeceased him, and there were four daughters, Agnes, Mary, Elisabeth and Margaret, of whom the latter three ‘died young’ (Douglas’s Baronage, p. 237; Book of Carlaverock, i. 587, Chart IV). In 1781 (OPRBM), William Glendonwyn would marry Agnes Gordon (d. 1791), daughter of Alexander Gordon (d. 1774) of Crogo, writer in Edinburgh (Scots Mag. Aug. 1791, liii. 415; Scots Mag. May 1774, xxxvi. 279; House of Gordon, Appendix I: Services of Heirs, pp. 16, 21, 111). In 1776 JB would be named as one of the ‘curators of Gordon of Crogo’s daughters’, and William Glendonwyn with others met at JB’s house in Edinburgh as ‘a quorum’ on the matter (Journ. 22 Jan. 1776, Ominous Years, p. 223).

Tuesday 12 May After breakfast had a long walk — the wood large.1 The water of Tibber perhaps from the Romans — a camp both above & below2 — This water brought along the opposite ridge to form the large Cascade. One built Cascade3 — & above a natural one — ingenuum tophum.4 Large Bason.5 Rills too. Wild white Cattle. Black mouths[,] feet & ears.6 Dutchess7 had them shot — Prodigious operation. Sir R. Laurie’s8 horse torn up. Now there are not above eight or ten of them. Dined here & went to Dumfries at night.9 Curious to see town where Saturday’s our day &c &c.10 Met by many South country Lairds. 1. Pennant described the scenery around Drumlanrig as follows: ‘The beauties of Drumlanrig are not confined to the highest part of the grounds; the walks, for a very considerable way, by the sides of the

Nith, abound with most picturesque and various scenery: below the bridge the sides are prettily wooded, but not remarkably lofty; above, the views become wildly magnificent: the river runs through a deep and

181

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 181

27/02/23 6:13 PM

12 may 1767 rocky channel, bounded by vast wooded cliffs, that rise suddenly from its margin; and the prospect down from the summit is of a terrific depth, encreased by the rolling of the black waters beneath: two views are particularly fine; one of quick repeated, but extensive, meanders amidst broken sharppointed rocks, which often divide the river into several channels, interrupted by short and foaming rapids, colored with a moory teint. The other is of a long strait, narrowed by the sides, precipitous and wooded, approaching each other equidistant, horrible from the blackness and fury of the river, and the fiery red and black colors of the rocks, that have all the appearance of having sustained a change by the rage of another element’ (Pennant, p. 127). 2. Pennant refers to ‘the little stream, the Tibber’, above which, on a small hill about a mile below Drumlanrig, were the remains of Tibbers Castle. The remains (a plan of which can be found on plate XLIX of William Roy’s Military Antiquities of the Romans in Britain, 1793) consisted merely of ‘the foundations overgrown with shrubs’ (Pennant, p. 126). It was long believed that the castle was originally a Roman fort and that ‘in after-times the Scots profiting of the situation, and what had been done before, built on the place a small castle’ (ibid.); and it was thought that the castle was named after the Roman emperor Tiberius or the fort’s Roman commander of the same name. However, it seems that Tibbers is simply from the Gaelic word ‘tiobar’, meaning a well (Book of Dumfriesshire, p. 178; TJP, series 3, xii. 262). And it is now considered doubtful that the castle was built over a Roman site, for ‘Tibbers does not conform in type to a Roman fort’ (Reid, ‘Tibbers Castle’, in TJP, series 3, xxi. 210– 15, at p. 212). ‘The remains of the stone castle are late 13th century . . . Its precursor was a mote and bailey castle of wood, which may have been a century earlier’ (ibid., p. 213). The building of the stone castle, which was ‘a rectangular building, with circular towers at each corner’, was begun

by Sir Richard Siward, a Scot in the service of Edward I, in 1298 (ibid., p. 214; see also Book of Dumfriesshire, p. 178; RCAHMCS, Seventh Report, pp. 63–65; Cruden, pp. 72–73; Mackenzie, pp. 43–44; Gifford, p. 59). 3. The cascade was created by the 3rd Duke of Queensberry (Stell, p. 84). 4. Ingenuum tophum (or tofum): native limestone (from Juvenal, Satires, I. iii. 20 – the full passage, lines 18–20, being quanto praesentius esset numen aquis, viridi si margine cluderet undas herba nec ingenuum violarent marmora tofum, meaning ‘what a gain in sanctity and atmosphere, if green-grassed banks surrounded the pool, if no flash marble affronted our native limestone!’ (Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires, p. 14)). 5. Archaic spelling of basin. 6. Pennant similarly mentions that in his walks about the park at Drumlanrig he saw ‘the white breed of wild cattle, derived from the native race of the country’, and goes on to say they still retained ‘the primæval savageness and ferocity of their ancestors: were more shy than any deer; ran away on the appearance of any of the human species, and even set off at full gallop on the lest [sic] noise; . . . during summer they keep apart from all other cattle, but in severe weather hunger will compel them to visit the out-houses in search of food. The keepers are obliged to shoot them, if any are wanted: if the beast is not killed on the spot it runs at the person who gave the wound, and who is forced, in order to save himself, to fly for safety to the intervention of some tree. These cattle are of a middle size, have very long legs, and the cows are fine horned: the orbits of the eyes and the tips of the noses are black’ (Pennant, pp. 124–25). 7. Catherine Hyde (c. 1701–77), Duchess of Queensberry, wife of Charles Douglas, 3rd Duke of Queensberry, and second daughter of Henry Hyde (1672–1753), 4th Earl of Clarendon. Famed for her ‘beauty and eccentricity’, she is said to have died ‘of a surfeit of cherries’ (Scots Peer. vii. 144; see also Scots Peer. iii. 268).

182

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 182

27/02/23 6:13 PM

13 may 1767 8. Sir Robert Laurie (d. 1779), 4th Bt. of Maxwelton (in Dumfriesshire), M.P. Dumfries Burghs 1738–41. His wife, Christian (Erskine) (b. 1715), was a daughter of Charles Erskine, Lord Tinwald (for whom, see p. 327 n. 26). She had died in 1755 (Comp. Bar. iv. 331; Sedgwick, ii. 200). 9. Thomas Pennant, who would visit Dumfries in 1772, described it as ‘a very neat and well-built town, seated on the Nith, and containing about five thousand souls. It was once possessed of a large share of the tobacco trade, but at present has scarcely any commerce. The great weekly markets for black cattle are of much advantage to the place; and vast droves from Galloway and the shire of Air pass through in the way to the fairs in Norfolk and Suffolk’ (Pennant, p. 115). 10. In the winter of 1761–62, JB had an affair with a young married woman whom Pottle concluded to be Jean (Home) Heron (born c. 1745–died after 1782), daughter of Lord Kames and Agatha (Drummond) (1711–95) (Oxford DNB, s.v. Henry Home, Lord Kames), and wife of Patrick Heron (c. 1735–1803) of Kirroughtree (in Minnigaff parish, Kirkudbrightshire), later M.P. Kirkcudbrightshire 1795–1803 (Thorne, iv. 187), who had married her in Oct. or Nov. 1761. Pottle believed that ‘Saturday’s our day’ had been the code used by JB and Jean Heron

for their assignations in Dumfries, one of which is thought to have been on Saturday, 15 May 1762, when the circuit court of the High Court of Justiciary sat there (Earlier Years, pp. 78–79, 83, 478, 480; Corr. 5, p. 30 n. 4). Pottle remarks that in May 1767 JB ‘approached Dumfries with misgivings presumably caused by the fact that he and Jean Heron had held some of their dangerous trysts there, and that he would have to meet her and perhaps be reproached for his infidelity. He mentions breakfasting at her mother-in-law’s [16 May], but names neither her nor her husband, though cryptic references to his own firmness [13 May] and the phrase “Saturday’s our day” [12 and 14 May] may adumbrate the confrontation he dreaded’ (Earlier Years, p. 326). Heron would divorce Jean in 1772 on the grounds of her adultery with a young officer in the army (see Alienated Affections, pp. 3, 41). Lord Kames despatched her to France and refused ever to set eyes on her again (Earlier Years, pp. 78, 478). In late 1764, JB had told Rousseau of his feelings of deep guilt over this adulterous affair in a lengthy and detailed paragraph of his ‘Ébauche de ma vie’ (Journ. 1, pp. 357–58, and p. 361 n. 43), and Rousseau addressed the matter, which JB had been anxious to raise with him, in conversation with JB on 14 Dec. 1764 (Journ. 1, p. 283 and p. 285 n. 16; see also Corr. 9, p. 118 n. 1).

Wednesday 13 May To Court [ — ] stupid woman banished.1 Evening assembly.2 Mrs. Laurie a charming creature.3 Played at whist. Agreable to feel how firm since this time 5 years.4 Home quiet. 1. At the circuit court of the High Court of Justiciary at Dumfries that day, Lord Auchinleck had passed sentence against Margaret Douglas, prisoner in the Tolbooth of Dumfries and formerly servant to John Scoon of Netherthornywhatts, for the crime of child murder. She had presented a petition, signed by her counsel,

David Armstrong (admitted advocate 13 Dec. 1763, later sheriff-depute of Dumfriesshire 1777–88, d. 1813 (Fac. Adv., p. 7)), consenting to being banished to one or other of the plantations in America, never to return during all the days of her life, and Lord Auchinleck banished her accordingly (Justiciary Court South

183

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 183

27/02/23 6:13 PM

13 may 1767 Circuit Minute Book (NRS JC12/12, pp. 83–86)). 2. That is, a dancing assembly, or ball, in honour of the circuit. Cockburn, writing in 1847, when he had attended circuits for over forty years, would recall some of the features of circuits in former times (Cockburn, p. 200): ‘Circuit balls, now totally given up, were then quite established, but only at certain towns. There was always one at Dumfries and at Ayr, and frequently at Glasgow. And very nice balls they used to be; easy and merry. The judge was always expected to attend, and generally did so’ (ibid., p. 206). Stat. Acct. Scot. states that Dumfries had ‘an elegant suit of assembly rooms’ (iv. 119) and that the assemblies held during the spring and autumn circuits of the High Court of Justiciary never failed ‘to bring together a considerable display of elegance and beauty’ (iv. 122). 3. Elizabeth Maria (or Mary Elizabeth) (Ruthven) Laurie, daughter-in-law

of Sir Robert Laurie and Christian (Erskine). In 1763 she had married Laurie’s son, Capt. Robert (later Gen. Sir Robert) Laurie (c. 1738–1804), who would be M.P. for Dumfriesshire 1774–1804 and would succeed as 5th Bt. in 1779. She was a daughter of James Ruthven (d. 1783), 5th Lord Ruthven of Freeland, and his second wife, Lady Anne Stuart (d. 1786), a sister of John Stuart, the 3rd Earl of Bute. Her son Robert (who would succeed as 6th Bt.) was born on 25 May 1764 (Namier and Brooke, iii. 23–24; Comp. Bar. iv. 332; Scots Peer. vii. 388–89). It appears that she is residing here, at Maxwelton, and that at this time her husband is absent, presumably with his regiment (the 7th Dragoons). She and her husband would divorce in 1774, on the grounds of her adultery (Commissariot of Edinburgh, p. 49, #626). For an account of the case, see Alienated Affections, pp. 116–17. 4. See p. 183 n. 10 above.

Thursday 14 May Breakfast with Collector Gordon.1 Dr. Mounsie very well informed, & communicative.2 Payed several visits. Found you could talk with ease of Saturday’s our day.3 Evening Assembly. Whist with Mrs. Thomas Young.4 1. Gilbert Gordon (d. 1789), Collector of Excise at Dumfries (Un. Sc. Alm. 1770, p. 100; Corres. Dodsley, p. 350 n. 11). JB had referred to Gordon as ‘a lively little man of a constant flow of vivacity and not so much feeling or depth of sentiment as to render him susceptible of unhappiness . . . He writes verses sometimes and has an “Epistle” [“On the Cultivation of Taste”] in Donaldson’s collection [Donaldson’s Collection, Vol. I, pp. 27–39]. He has been acquainted with several good authors and has some of their works ex dono’ (Journ. 5 Oct. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, pp. 68–69). In the trial of the Galloway rioters (for which, see p. 191 n. 7 and pp. 191–92 n. 1), JB would mention Gordon (as Collector of Excise) in his

notes for his summing up of the evidence (LPJB 1, p. 291 and n. 1011). 2. James Mounsey (1709/10–1773), distinguished physician and naturalist, M.D. (Rheims, 1739), Fellow of the Royal Society (1750). Although he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1729 to 1730, he did not take a degree there. From 1731 to 1734 he served an apprenticeship with the Edinburgh surgeon Thomas Wood. From 1736 to 1756 he worked as a doctor for the Russians in various military and naval posts. Thereafter he worked with great success as a private medical practitioner in Moscow, becoming personal physician to the Empress Elizabeth in 1760. After her death in 1761, he was appointed chief physician to Tsar Peter III and was given responsibility ‘for all

184

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 184

27/02/23 6:13 PM

15 may 1767 Russian medical affairs – civilian, military, and naval. Within four months Mounsey had compiled . . . three significant pieces of medical legislation,’ all demonstrating ‘his considerable knowledge, experience, and administrative flair’. When the Tsar died in 1762 Mounsey came to Edinburgh, where he gave JB’s friend Sir Alexander Dick a quantity of medicinal rhubarb seeds from Russia, for which Mounsey was elected an honorary member of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh. In 1763 he built a mansion at Rammerscales in Dumfriesshire (Oxford DNB). 3. See p. 183 n. 10 above. JB appears to mean that he found himself able to bring up the young married woman’s name in conversation during these ‘several visits’, without self-consciousness or difficulty.

4. Probably Grizel (Craik) Young (c. 1732–1809), wife of Thomas Young (c. 1721–1804) of Youngfield, about a mile north-west of Dumfries, adjacent to Lincluden College (Scots Mag. June 1809, lxxi. 479; Memorial Inscriptions, Holywood Church and Graveyard, , #4808; Cal. Merc. 19 Feb. 1795). Burns would write a particularly nasty ‘epitaph’ about her, referring to her as ‘Grizzel Grim’. That epitaph is widely believed to be the source for his later ballad, ‘Grim Grizzel is a mighty dame’ (Jonathan Henderson, Pauline Mackay and Pamela McIntyre, ‘“Epitaph” on Grizzel Grim: A Newly-Discovered Manuscript in the Hand of Robert Burns’, in Studies in Scottish Literature, Vol. 41, Issue 1 (2016), pp. 253–58).

Friday 15 May Nairne1 & Capt. Douglas2 & you rode out & breakfasted at Dalswinton.3 Mrs. Laurie &c dined. At 5 walked out with Mr. W. Hay.4 Evening Assembly. Was fond of Mrs. L––––[.] [N]ot yet firm against fine eyes. Danced with her. Supt at Major Gordon’s.5 1. William Nairne, who was acting as Advocate-Depute at the Southern Circuit. 2. William Douglas (c. 1731–83) of Kelhead in Dumfriesshire, a cousin of JB’s on his mother’s side (Ominous Years, Chart IV, p. 377). Douglas would succeed to the baronetcy of Kelhead in 1778 (Comp. Bar. iv. 267). He had been a Lt. in the Scots Brigade in Holland from 1747 to about 1758 and a Cornet in the cavalry regiment known as the Second (or Royal North British) Dragoons (‘the Scots Greys’), having obtained his commission in that regiment on 20 Jan. 1759. He retired from the army in or about 1765, joined the household of the 3rd Duke of Queensberry, and would be M.P. for the Dumfries Burghs from 1768 to 1780 (Namier and Brooke, ii. 332; Army List, 1764, p. 26 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/14)). In 1762, JB had referred to

Douglas as ‘an amiable young fellow whom I hope to see in the circumstances which he deserves’ (Journ. 6 Oct. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 70), and reports breakfasting with him in London on 20 Dec. 1762, along with Douglas’s cousin Capt. William Maxwell of Dalswinton (?1728–96) (Journ. 21 Dec. 1762, LJ 1762–63, p. 58, p. 376 n. 5). For JB’s use of the term ‘Captain’, see p. 99 n. 8. 3. A small village in Kirkmahoe parish, Dumfriesshire (OGS, ii. 343), about 5½ miles north-west of Dumfries. 4. William Hay, W.S., of Crawfordton (‘an estate . . . in Glencairn parish, W[est] Dumfriesshire’ (OGS, ii. 303)). 5. Either Peter Gordon, who was appointed Maj. in the 108th Regt. of Foot on 17 Oct. 1761 (Army List, 1762, p. 175 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/11)), which regiment was disbanded in

185

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 185

27/02/23 6:13 PM

15 may 1767 1763 (Farmer, p. 130), or Robert Gordon, who was appointed Capt. in the 21st Regt. of Foot (or Royal North British Fusiliers) on 12 Oct. 1751 and was promoted to the

rank of Maj. on 7 May 1762, but does not seem ever to have held a position as Maj. (Army List, 1764, p. 74 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/14)).

Saturday 16 May Mr. Nairne & I breakfasted at Mrs. Heron’s.1 I then paid visits. Ladies dined with us. Evening Assembly in Coffee house.2 You felt still remains of discontent. Thomas’s Father here.3 Quite Coomberland.4 Happy his Son with you &c. 1. Margaret (MacKie) Heron, mother of Patrick Heron of Kirroughtree (Thorne, iv. 187). In 1762, JB had referred to her as ‘a very good little woman’ (Journ. 5 Oct. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 69). 2. The Coffee House, in the High Street of Dumfries, had been acquired by the town council at the end of the seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth century and had had ‘a sort of public reading-room, where newspapers were kept’ (Shirley, p. 122). However, by 1755, the council, ‘under the pressure of monetary difficulties, had given up this news-room luxury. The house itself was sold by them to Mr George Lowthian . . . and he was informed that they had discontinued the newspapers, so that he might, if he thought fit, provide others for the room at his own charge’ (McDowall, p. 514). ‘The ground floors of the news-room . . . were at one time used as an Exchange, having been built with open piazzas for that purpose’ (ibid.). 3. Thomas Edmondson (c. 1739–1813 (OPRDB)), JB’s servant, who had been

recommended to him by WJT (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 40 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 37 n. 6). JB had reported to WJT that Thomas ‘does excellently well’ (To WJT, 1 Feb.–8 Mar., Corr. 6, p. 168). However, in a letter to JB in Sept. 1769, WJT would say that JB was right to have dismissed Thomas for impertinence (From WJT, 3 Sept. 1769, Corr. 6, p. 257). MM had complained to JB of some offensive behaviour on his part, leading JB to write to her that she should allow him ‘to tell the rascal his villainy and turn him off’ (17 July 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 247, McGraw-Hill p. 232). On 28 Sept. 1769, Thomas would marry Euphemia Bruce (1743–1827), eldest daughter of James Bruce, overseer of the Auchinleck estate, and Jean White (1717– 83) (Corr. 1, p. 215 n. 2; Corr. 8, p. lii n. 92, p. 68 n. 2, p. 231), and in 1774 he would be employed as judges’ and advocates’ gownkeeper in Edinburgh (Journ. 22 Oct. 1774, Ominous Years, p. 28). 4. Thomas’s father was presumably from Cumberland, where the letter ‘u’ would commonly be pronounced ‘oo’.

Sunday 17 May At church all day.1 Wearied enough but no gloom. Tea Provost Maxwell’s.2 Then long walk with Mrs. Laurie, Mrs. Young3 &c. Was in love like a madman: knew it would not last. Supt with the Judge.4 1. See p. 172 n. 2. 2. Robert Maxwell of Careen, Provost of Dumfries 1756–58, 1760–62, 1766–68, 1772–74, 1775–77 and 1779–81

(). 3. Probably Grizel Young. But possibly Agnes (Orr) Young (1722–1809), widow of

186

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 186

27/02/23 6:13 PM

18 may 1767 the Rev. William Young (1710–61), who had been minister of the nearby parish of Hutton and Corrie in Annandale, Dumfriesshire (OGS, iv. 281–82; Fasti Scot. ii. 206), daughter of the Rev. Alexander Orr (1686–1767), who had been minister of the Annandale parish of Hoddam (Fasti Scot. ii. 249), and sister of Alexander Orr of Water-

side, W.S. Her brother was JB’s instructing solicitor in a number of cases (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, pp. 372–74, 376, 377; LPJB 2, pp. 396, 402, 404, 405; Journ. 25 Oct. 1774, Ominous Years, p. 29) and JB would attend his funeral in Edinburgh in 1774 (Journ. 29 Nov. 1774, Ominous Years, p. 41). 4. That is, with Lord Auchinleck.

Monday 18 May Set out. Breakfasted at Dalswinton. Dined at Shaws with the Sherrif.1 Sir Thomas there;2 a genteel travelled man. Many such to be found in Scotland. Sweet Place. A large field or Park of beautifull grass, interspersed with heathy hillocs, thrown at random. Nature has here pointed out the way to art, just to plant these hillocs which the Sherrif has done: Night Tarachty’s:3 very jolly & happy. 1. William Kirkpatrick (c. 1705–77) of Shaws (an estate in Dumfriesshire), advocate (admitted 19 Nov. 1728), appointed Professor of Public Law at Edinburgh University 1734, M.P. Dumfries Burghs 1736– 38, appointed Principal Clerk of Session 28 June 1738, sheriff-depute of Dumfriesshire 1747 (Fac. Adv., p. 119; LPJB 1, p. 388; Sedgwick, ii. 190; Cal. Merc. 20 Oct. 1777). He was the third son of Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, 2nd Bt. of Closeburn, and Isabel Lockhart, and younger brother of Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, 3rd Bt. of Closeburn (for whom, see following note) (Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, pp. 54, 56). His wife was Jean Erskine (d. 1752 (Fac. Adv., p. 119)), daughter of Charles Erskine, Lord Tinwald. Her sister Christian was wife of Sir Robert Laurie, 4th Bt. of Maxwelton. 2. Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick (1704–71), 3rd Bt. of Closeburn (an estate in Nithsdale, Dumfriesshire) (Comp. Bar. iv. 330). ‘Sir Thomas came into possession of his patrimony when quite young, and wasted his property in the most thoughtless extravagance. He travelled on the Continent spending profusely; on his return home he lived in a style of lavish recklessness. But the most ruinous expenditure was incurred in political contests. Various members of

the family and their connections had so frequently sat in Parliament for the County or Borough, that they thought themselves entitled to control the elections; but they now found their claim disputed by their powerful neighbour, the Duke of Queensberry, who determined to secure the seats for his own family . . . [I]nto all these contests Sir Thomas plunged, with a disregard to expense, which ultimately involved the family in very serious difficulties’ (Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, p. 58). But, perhaps corroborating JB’s description of him here, although ‘Sir Thomas by his recklessness involved his family in difficulties amounting to comparative ruin’ and was ‘therefore remembered by the succeeding generations with embittered feelings, it cannot be denied that he had his merits as well as his faults. He was talented and accomplished, highly popular in his manners, a good neighbour, and a warm friend’ (ibid., p. 60). In 1748, the ‘house of Closeburn, built by the first Baronet, partly with the materials of the old Castle, of which he left nothing but the Keep, was burnt to the ground . . . After the destruction of Closeburn House Sir Thomas took up his abode in the old Keep. And now became too apparent the fact that his extravagance had involved

187

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 187

27/02/23 6:13 PM

18 may 1767 him in serious difficulties. The blow was too heavy to be retrieved. There were no means for rebuilding the family mansion, and he died in the old Tower, in October 1771’ (ibid., p. 59). His son and successor, Sir

James Kirkpatrick (d. 1804 (ibid., p. 65)), ‘devoted himself strenuously to the task of repairing the mischief done by his father’ (ibid., p. 63). 3. John Maxwell of Terraughty.

Tuesday 19 May Nairne said a good thing when I observed that as we passed through the Counties, we found a different Sir John & a different Sir Thomas &c. Yes said He[,] like changing the money upon you in different territories. The Coins have the same name, but not the same value. Yes said I[,] and in our County We have two Sir Johns[:] the gros ecu and the petit ecu.1 Drove along. Met at Kirconnel2 by a number of the Cumnoc People.3 Fine to see the attachment of the County. Hearty dinner at old mill.4 Through own Village5 with trumpets blowing.6 Home. Mr. Claud7 & Mr. Stobie arrived. 1. An écu was a French silver coin corresponding to a British crown (five shillings) (SOED), but at the time of JB’s travels in Europe, in a period of economic instability after the Seven Years’ War, it could, like other coins, fluctuate in value, depending on region. See Journ. 1, ‘A Note on Distances and Currency’, p. xx, and for JB’s use of the term ‘écu’ while keeping his Expense Accounts during his German and Swiss travels, see the headnote to Appendix 3, p. 370. By ‘our County’ JB presumably means Ayrshire. If so, one of the Sir Johns JB had in mind may have been Sir John Cuningham of Caprington, and the other may have been Sir John Whitefoord (c. 1730–1803) of Ballochmyle (in Mauchline parish, in the Kyle district of Ayrshire) (but who styled himself ‘of that ilk’), Bt., appointed Maj. in the 21st Regt. of Dragoons 26 Feb. 1762 (Comp. Bar. iv.

400–01; Ayrshire, p. 273; Army List, 1762, p. 45 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/11)). Another possibility is Sir John Cathcart of Killochan Castle (for whom, see p. 231 n. 5). 2. Kirkconnel. 3. Presumably a reference to people from New Cumnock, about 8 miles west of Kirkconnel. 4. Perhaps the mill, immediately to the south of New Cumnock, shown on Armstrongs’ Map of Ayrshire. 5. That is, the village of Auchinleck. 6. Trumpeters rode in front of the Lords of Justiciary during processions when they were on circuit. The letters ‘G.R.’ (standing for George Rex, i.e. King George) were embroidered on the breast of the trumpeters’ coats (JB’s A Letter to Lord Braxfield (1780), p. 27). 7. Claud Boswell.

Wednesday 20 May Much good walking. Mr. Duff came.1 And some others. Good ride to Ayr[.]2 [M]ade Douglas Cause[,] a Song.3 Pleased to feel so strong from what you was last time you went to Ayr.4

188

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 188

27/02/23 6:13 PM

20 may 1767 1. William Duff, sheriff-depute of Ayrshire. 2. At this time, Ayr ‘was still a very small town, hardly increased in size from what it had been in mediaeval times, a community of merchants and tradesmen, fishermen and sailors, and the residence of a number of gentlemen of independent fortune’ (Ayrshire, p. 252). 3. Like JB’s song The Hamilton Cause (for which, see pp. 105–07 n. 1), the song The Douglas Cause, which he published as a broadside, satirized the Memorial prepared by Sir Adam Fergusson of Kilkerran for the Duke of Hamilton (see Earlier Years, pp. 326–27, and Lit. Car. p. 27). JB wrote yet a third song about the Cause, this one in Scots, which he did not publish, but enclosed in a letter to JJ of 28 May (Corr. 1, pp. 229–30; Earlier Years, pp. 327–28); Pottle thought it a better song than either of the two he published (Earlier Years, p. 327). ‘His other Douglas-Cause ballads are clever, but do not attain to anything like such vigour and wit’ (ibid., p. 328). The song The Douglas Cause, which is set out in Lit. Car. p. 25, is in the following terms: We grant you, gentlemen, your suit Must be pronounc’d the Cause of Causes: We’ve studied with sufficient care, Your Parts, your Sections, and your Pauses. We own your tale is finely told, We own your conduct has been glorious; But you’ll excuse us if we own, We think you’ll hardly be victorious. No birth must henceforth be believ’d, Unless proclaim’d by sound of trumpet; And ev’ry Dame of high degree Become as brazen as a strumpet. The Cross of Edinburgh must be made A perfect hospital in-lying; Nor will the music-bells be heard, For Female Quality a-crying.

Tho’ Sages would, with wond’rous strength, O’erpower him by the force of Numbers, Think you the gen’rous Youth is gone? Think you his Counsel will be dumbbears? Since Calculators have advanc’d To strike us like a clap of thunder! Why don’t Astronomers dispute The very star he was born under? Who e’er denied that Fifty is Less giv’n to sport than Five-andtwenty*? And who could not from Paris bring Blank books and tavern-bills in plenty? We’ve read how children have been own’d By rings, by bracelets, or by lockets: But now, to dispossess an heir, Proofs may be found in Falstaff’s pockets†. Should noble DOUGLAS lose his cause, Foes may ’gainst all our families dance in, And ev’ry egg-shell of a plea Become a boat to sail to France in.

For the Cross of Edinburgh (i.e. the Market Cross), see p. 222 n. 7. The ‘music-bells’ were ‘heard playing a wide variety of popular tunes from the great central tower of St Giles’ [Church] for an hour each day at midday, except on Sundays and holidays. The bells were played by a musician on keys (said to have been like those on a harpsichord) which had to be struck with some force; and the larger bells were controlled with treadles’ (BEJ, p. 12). An asterisk on ‘Five-and-twenty’ leads to a footnote, ‘That a woman arrived at the age of fifty should have a child is much more improbable, than that a woman of twenty-five should have one. HAMILTON Memorial, Part. I. p. 22.’

189

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 189

27/02/23 6:13 PM

20 may 1767   A † on ‘Falstaff’s pockets’ leads to a footnote, as follows: GODEFROI.

FALSTAFF.

Monsieur,    Sont entrés à souper.

Item, a Capon, 2 s. 2 d.

Deux Bouteilles de Bourgogne,

0 12

Item, Sauce, 4 d.

Trois Bouteilles de Bourgogne,

1 16

Item, Sack, two gallons 5 s. 8 d.

Pour du Beurre tous les jours,

10

Item, Anchoves and Sack after supper, 2 s. 6 d.

Un carreau de vitre,

05

Item, Bread, a half-penny.

   Hamilton Proof, p. 102.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act II. Scene last.

Pottle explains the footnote thus: ‘By an entry of charges for food and wine from the register of a hotel in Paris where Lady Jane and her husband admitted staying before moving to Mme. [Le] Brune’s, the Hamilton party were trying to prove that the [Stewarts] had in fact been there on the day on which the birth was alleged to have taken

place. [JB] confronted this entry with the reckoning for capon and sack which Prince Hal abstracted from Falstaff’s pocket’ (Earlier Years, p. 327). 4. It seems that JB’s last visit to Ayr had been in Oct. 1766 when he had attended the Southern Circuit of the High Court of Justiciary (see p. 60 n. 60).

Thursday 21 May Breakfasted early. Miss Blair1 not come home. Got Mr. Niel[,] the Factor[,]2 & rode out[.]3 [S]aw every part of the estate, fine land, large orchards[,] good house but in disorder. Saw Miss B’s cradle[.] [R]ocked it, that in speaking of her age, I might say I had rocked her cradle. Saw Ladykirk[.] [M]ounted the old Steeple.4 Came to Prestic.5 Then saw King’s case.6 One poor wretch — Curious antiquity. Black stone to be lifted only in one particular way. A good jaunt. On my return to Ayr was much joked on having been viewing the premises. Afternoon consulting for the tryal of the Galloway Rioters.7 Got a handsom fee of Six Guineas.8 1. Catherine Blair of Adamton. 2. Possibly James Neill (d. 1799), writer in Ayr, son of James Neill, merchant in Ayr (for whom, see pp. 196–97 n. 1), admitted notary public 30 June 1756, town clerk of Prestwick 1758–66, later admitted burgess and guild brother of Ayr 27 Sept. 1771, member of the Society of Writers in Ayr 1773 (LPJB 2, p. 277 (where his name is spelled ‘Mr Niel’) and p. 414; Finlay, i. 277, No. 1478; RBP, pp. 95–96; BGBA, pp. 116 and 170; Corr. 7, p. 102 n. 1). 3. That is, JB and the factor rode out to Adamton, about 4 miles north-east

of Ayr and about 7½ miles north-west of Auchinleck House. 4. The estate of Ladykirk, in Monkton and Prestwick parish in the Kyle district of Ayrshire, immediately to the south of Adamton, was owned by William Gairdner (c. 1718–80 (OPRDB)), writer in Ayr (Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 582). On the estate were the ruins of a pre-Reformation chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary (hence the chapel’s popular name of ‘our Lady Kirk’). The chapel originally had four turrets, but at the time of JB’s visit probably only one turret remained (ibid., pp. 573–74).

190

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 190

27/02/23 6:13 PM

22 may 1767 5. Prestwick, in Monkton and Prestwick parish, Ayrshire (Prestic, or Prestick, being an old-fashioned spelling of Prestwick). Although Prestwick was merely ‘a one-street village’ when it was mapped by William Roy in 1754 (MS, p. 784), it was an ancient burgh of barony (OGS, vi. 231). 6. Variously spelled Kilcais, Kincase, Kingcase, King’s Case, etc., this was an ancient hospital in Monkton and Prestwick parish, near Prestwick. The hospital was established for ‘indigent persons affected with leprosy’ (Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 575; see also Ayrshire, p. 359). Leprosy was not eradicated in Britain until near the end of the eighteenth century, at which time the hospital admitted ‘persons labouring under diseases thought incurable, or in indigent circumstances’ (Stat. Acct. Scot., vi. 467). JB’s entry appears to mean that he saw ‘one poor wretch’ in this condition here.

7. Like the case relating to the alleged riot in Stewarton (for which, see pp. 173–74 n. 1), this was a case in which the accused were alleged to have formed part of a mob of ‘meal rioters’. ‘The incident in question occurred on 11 March 1767, when some residents of Garlieston and Whithorn [towns in Wigtownshire] assembled at a time when meal was scarce to prevent consignments of meal from being conveyed away in boats’ (LPJB 1, p. 286). The accused were Robert Johnston, excise officer in Whithorn (who was also alleged to have written an ‘incendiary letter’ instigating the riot), George Guthrie, wright in Garlieston, James Cready, sailor in Garlieston, and Patrick Conning and Keith Burnie, merchants in Whithorn (ibid.; criminal letters (Justiciary Court Processes, NRS JC26/184)). 8. The fee was duly recorded in the Consultation Book (LPJB 1, p. 375).

Friday 22 May Tryal of the Galloway Rioters1 for which see Justiciary Book.2 Afternoon with Mathew Dickie & Mr. Dick[,] Father in law to Mathew Hay.3 Then in prison4 with McLure & Hay. Consulted on yet procuring Bail.5 Met at Sarah Bowie’s6 with Capt. McAdam7 &c. Tea Sherrif Logan’s.8 Supt Achinskeech’s.9 Craigengillan10 there. Hearty & well. Camlir there too.11 He insisted on convoying me home,12 a mark of kindness which I shall remember from the cordial manner in which He did it. 1. The trial came before Lord Auchinleck at the Southern Circuit of the High Court of Justiciary sitting in the Tolbooth of Ayr (for which, see n. 4 below). Counsel for the prosecution was William Nairne, Advocate-Depute. ‘One of the accused, Patrick Conning, failed to appear at the trial, and on Nairne’s motion Lord Auchinleck declared Conning to be an outlaw and fugitive. [JB] argued that the libel was irrelevant. Having heard [JB’s] submissions and those of Nairne, Lord Auchinleck found the libel relevant to infer an arbitrary punishment, but allowed the accused

to prove all facts and circumstances which might tend to exculpate or alleviate their guilt. The trial then proceeded before a jury. After the evidence was heard, Nairne summed up the evidence on behalf of the prosecution and [JB] summed up the evidence on behalf of the accused’ (LPJB 1, pp. 288–89; Justiciary Court South Circuit Minute Book (NRS JC12/12)). JB’s manuscript notes of his pleas for the accused, extending to nine pages (Yale MS. Lg 8:8), are transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 289–92. On pages 2–3 of his notes, with regard to his submissions on the relevancy of the libel,

191

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 191

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 may 1767 JB stated: ‘When I first heard that there were Some People from Galloway to be tried here for a Meal Riot, I supposed that cruel Necessity had so far got the better of reason with some unhappy People that they had risen in a violent and outrageous manner, set fire to some storehouse, demolished some Ship, assaulted the forestallers [people guilty of the crime of forestalling or regrating, i.e. “purchasing goods coming to market, with a view to sell them again, and so to raise the price on the consumer” (Bell, 3rd ed., s.v. “Forestalling, or Regrating”)] & their Associates & perhaps been unfortunate enough to carry their resentment so far that many lives had been lost . . . But when I read over these Criminal Letters & even without making any allowance for the exaggeration that Libels usualy contain, I confess I felt my mind so much relieved that my Apprehensions for my Clients have been allmost entirely removed . . . [I]n a time of scarcity such as this when every thing was to be dreaded, all that is charged against these Pannels is that they went with a fiddle playing before them, boarded two Wherrys [wherries being sailing barges with one sail, and a mast stepped forward (CSD)] & made them sail from the Coast of Northlag to Garlieston, from one port in Galloway to another. I confess it has to me the air of a drunken frolic’ (LPJB 1, p. 290). With regard to the charge against Johnston of writing an incendiary letter, JB’s arguments are set out on pages 6–9 of his notes (ibid., pp. 291–92). On page 7, JB argued, among other things, that evidence of a person’s handwriting ‘is the most vague and uncertain of all evidence & I should be sorry if the life or the good name of a British Subject could be taken away by such proof’ (ibid., p. 291). ‘After [JB] had completed his summing up of the evidence on behalf of the accused, Lord Auchinleck charged the jury, ordering them to return with their verdict at six o’clock in the afternoon that same day. The court duly reconvened at that time, and the jury then returned their verdict. The jury unanimously found the

libel “not proven” against Robert Johnston and James Cready, but found it proven that George Guthrie and Keith Burnie were concerned “art and part” in the mob. Lord Auchinleck then assoilzied Johnston and Cready and dismissed them from the bar, but continued the advising of the verdict with regard to Guthrie and Burnie until the following morning. When the court reconvened the following morning, Lord Auchinleck ordered Guthrie and Burnie to be detained in the Tolbooth of Ayr for twenty-one days, after which they were to be set free’ (ibid., p. 292; Justiciary Court South Circuit Minute Book (supra)). 2. JB’s ‘Justiciary Book’, in which it appears he kept a record of criminal cases in which he was involved, has not been traced and ‘seems to have perished’ (BP, vii. 132 n. 1). 3. William Dick (d. ?1784). In Apr. 1740, when he was a gardener in Auchans (an estate in Dundonald parish in the Kyle district of Ayrshire (Ayrshire, p. 270)), he married Ann Muir at Dundonald (OPRBM). Their daughter, Ann Dick (1743–97 (OPRBB and OPRDB)), married Matthew Hay (for whom, see n. 5 below) at ‘the Craigs’ in Dundonald parish on 16 June 1766 (OPRBM). William Dick is probably the William Dick, farmer in Knockendale (an estate in Symington parish in the Kyle district of Ayrshire (Ayrshire, p. 302)), who died there and was buried at Dundonald on 3 Apr. 1784 (OPRDB). 4. The prison was in the Tolbooth of Ayr, built in 1754–55 and standing in the middle of the street known as the Sandgate (Ayr and Wigton, I. i. 59–60; Ayrshire, p. 253). 5. ‘Matthew Hay [bap. 10 Aug. 1740 at Dundonald (OPRBB) – 1780 (Corr. 5, pp. 171–72 n. 3)] of Plewlands (presumably the farmstead of that name near Beattock in the Annandale district of Dumfriesshire (RCAHMS, site number NY09NE 81)) and John McClure (or Mclure or MacLure) [b. 1722 (Corr. 5, pp. 171–72 n. 3)], merchant in Ayr, were both prisoners in the Tolbooth

192

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 192

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 may 1767 of Ayr, held on suspicion of having been accessories to an attempted assassination of two customs officers on the highway between Irvine and Ayr. It was alleged that two muskets or other firearms had been discharged at the officers and that a man riding in their company had had his horse shot under him. On 28 March 1767, the Sheriff-Depute at Ayr (William Duff) [had] considered petitions given in by Hay and McClure seeking liberation on bail, but . . . [he had] held that the crime for which Hay and McClure were incarcerated was not bailable and [had] therefore refused the petition (Justiciary Court Processes NRS JC26/183). On 9 April 1767, a petition [had been] presented to the Court of Justiciary on behalf of Hay craving the court to find the crime bailable (ibid.). In terms of the Criminal Procedure Act 1701 (RPS, 1700/10/234; APS x 272, c. 6), being an “Act for preventing wrongful imprisonment and against undue delays in trials” (RPS, 1700/10/234), the question turned on whether or not attempted murder inferred capital punishment, for the Act provided that “all crimes not inferring capital punishment shall be bailable” [ibid.]’ (LPJB 1, p. 381). However, no decision was made on this point, and the case proceeded no further and never came to trial. ‘Both Hay and McClure were released on 11 June 1767. It seems that the reason for the failure to bring on the trial was that a crucial witness, John McMurtrie, one of the customs officers, had disappeared. The Lord Advocate [James Montgomery (1721–1803) of Stanhope, advocate (admitted 23 Feb. 1743), appointed sheriff-depute of Peeblesshire 1748, conjunct Solicitor-General for Scotland with Francis Garden (later Lord Gardenstone) in 1761 (becoming sole Solicitor-General in July 1764), Lord Advocate (Apr. 1766 to 1775), M.P. Dumfries Burghs 1766–68, later M.P. Peeblesshire 1768–75, Lord Chief Baron of Exchequer 1775–81, Bt. 16 July 1801 (Fac. Adv., p. 154; LPJB 1, p. 390)] appears to have suspected that [JB] may have had something to do with this; and on 4 June 1767 he wrote

to [JB] in the following terms: “Yesterday I considered a very long Precognition [witness statement] about the Affair mentioned in Your Letter of the 30th May. As things stand circumstanced I do not think it is my Duty to bring Your Clients to Tryal at present, and as that is the Case, I can have no Objection to their being liberated without delay and will concur in any measure necessary for that purpose, unless in answer to a Letter to be wrote this day, I get some fresh information which may alter my Opinion, but which I do not expect. The spiriting away McMurtrie, and other Circumstances give a conviction to my mind, that Persons of some consideration have been concerned in the Wicked Conspiracy; — It is Your Duty to defend Your Clients, and I observe Your Zeal in doing so upon every occasion with great pleasure and satisfaction, But it is both your Duty and Mine to wish a detection of the Persons guilty of so foul a Crime, and that the punishment of their guilt may not be prevented by illegal means . . . ” [Corr. 5, p. 171]’ (LPJB 1, pp. 381–82). However, Montgomery’s suspicions seem to be contradicted by a letter to JB dated 13 June from John McClure’s brother David (who, along with John, was suspected of smuggling (Corr. 5, pp. 174–75 n. 1)), for ‘David McClure’s protestations of his own innocence . . . at least shows that McClure did not suspect JB of having had anything to do with McMurtrie’s disappearance’ (Corr. 5, p. 172 n. 5). For further information with regard to this matter, see LPJB 1, pp. 381– 82; Corr. 5, pp. 171–72 n. 3 and pp. 174–75 n. 1; and Earlier Years, pp. 328–29 and 539. For Hay’s later career as smuggler, see David Cuthbertson, The Smugglers of Troon Including the Authentic Adventures of Matthew Hay, of the Holms Farm, Dundonald, Ayrshire, Farmer, Smuggler and Gentleman Adventurer, 1927. In 1780, he would be tried at the Ayr circuit court for murder and convicted, and executed on 13 Oct. 1780 (Scots. Mag. Oct. 1780, xlii. 553–54). When JB, at Auchinleck, heard the news that Hay had been condemned, ‘I was more

193

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 193

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 may 1767 affected than I could have supposed. Was rendered faint and dismal . . . Felt myself as weak as in my youngest days’ (Journ. 14 May 1780, 8–9 Sept. 1780, Laird, pp. 212, 242 and n. 8, 243–44 and 243 n. 3). 6. A tavern in Ayr. No record of this tavern has been traced. The proprietor was possibly Sarah Bowie (c. 1717–97), who died at Ayr, aged eighty, and is referred to in the parish record of burial as ‘Relict of Robt. Adam (sailor)’ (OPRDB). 7. James McAdam (for whom, see p. 163 n. 2). 8. William Logan of Castlemains. MS. ‘Met at Sarah Bowie’s with Capt. McAdam &c. Tea Sherrif Logan’s.’ interlined. 9. That is, the property of William Cuninghame of Auchenskeith. A reference to Cuninghame’s town house in Ayr. ‘Many Ayrshire lairds had town houses [in Ayr]’ (Corr. 8, p. 157 n. 6; see also Ayr, pp. 108–09). 10. John McAdam of Craigengillan.

11. William Logan of Camlarg, an estate in the parish of Dalmellington, in the Kyle district of Ayrshire. Logan had inherited the estate from his father, William Logan of Camlarg, in 1761. He was son-in-law of James McAdam of Waterhead, whose daughter Margaret he had married in 1763 (Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 382–83; Ayrshire, p. 280). 12. JB’s journal entry for 28 Apr. 1769 below states that, while at Ayr that day, he and Margaret Montgomerie stayed at an inn, and he refers to a James Gibson who ‘was our old landlord’. It is therefore possible that the ‘home’ which JB mentions here was a house held by Lord Auchinleck in 1767 as tenant of James Gibson, but which would cease to be so held by Apr. 1769. JB would later report having a town house of his own in Ayr (To Andrew Gibb, 14 Mar. 1792, Corr. 8, p. 156). This was in Mill Vennel (Corr. 8, p. 157 n. 6), and JB would use this house in the 1790s, after his removal to London, as a source of rental income (ibid., p. 180 n. 3).

Saturday 23 May Tryal of the Stewarton Rioters1 for which see Justiciary Book. Tea Captain McAdam’s. Sarah Bowie’s with three Baillies of2 Prestic.3 Admirable Twopenny.4 Jamie Niel5 & Andrew Taylor6 & Hallglenmuir7 & Knockroon8 there. Evening had the Kilmarnock Necromancing irish woman with me. Curious Consultation.9 1. As with the trial relating to the riot in Galloway, the trial in relation to the Stewarton riot (for which, see p. 173–74 n. 1) came before Lord Auchinleck at the Southern Circuit of the High Court of Justiciary sitting in the Tolbooth of Ayr. Again, counsel for the prosecution was William Nairne. The prosecution called ten witnesses, after which JB declared that he did not think it necessary to adduce any proof in exculpation. Nairne summed up the evidence on behalf of the prosecution and JB did so on behalf of the accused. Lord Auchinleck then charged the jury. ‘[JB] obtained acquit-

tals for all four of the accused who attended the trial, the jury unanimously returning a verdict of “not proven” in respect of each of them. The two accused who failed to attend for trial [John Skeoch and Robert Gardiner] were declared outlaws and fugitives’ (LPJB 1, p. 292; Justiciary Court South Circuit Minute Book, NRS JC12/12). JB records no fee in the case and may have provided his services gratuitously (Earlier Years, p. 539). 2. MS. ‘of’ repeated. 3. Prestwick (see p. 191 n. 5). On 9 Mar., JB had been instructed to draft a reclaiming petition for John Guthrie, and

194

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 194

27/02/23 6:14 PM

24 may 1767 others, burgesses of the burgh of Prestwick (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, p. 375), in the burgesses’ action against the magistrates of Prestwick for reduction of the magistrates’ allegedly inequitable division of the burgh’s arable lands (for details of that action, and transcriptions of papers in it drafted by JB, see LPJB 1, pp. 229–46). The three bailies (i.e. magistrates) mentioned in this entry were thus some of the opponents of JB’s clients in the action. However, it would seem that the session in Sarah Bowie’s tavern was simply a social occasion. 4. ‘Twopenny’, or ‘Tuppeny’, was one of the two principal kinds of ale traditionally brewed in Scotland, the other being the superior strong ‘Scotch Ale’. ‘Tuppeny’, which was so called on account of its price per Scots pint (about 3 imperial pints: CSD, s.v. ‘joug’) in 1707 at the time of the Union, was a relatively weak ale (produced by a further mashing of the grain used for the Scotch Ale), but very popular (Keay and Keay, p. 99; Graham, SLSEC, p. 526; Donachie, p. 11; Spake). Tobias Smollett described tuppeny as ‘a thin, yeasty bever-

age, made of malt; not quite so strong as the table beer of England’ (The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, To Sir Watkin Phillips, 3 Sept.). 5. Probably James Neill, writer in Ayr. 6. Andrew Taylor (c. 1727–77), writer in Ayr (OPRDB). 7. Alexander Mitchell of Hallglenmuir. 8. John Boswell of Knockroon. 9. JB’s client was Nelly Barclay alias Buchanan alias Taylor, ‘who had been found guilty by the magistrates of the burgh . . . of Kilmarnock of “pretending to reveal secrets, and informing where stolen or lost goods were to be found”, and frequently demanding and taking payment for this information, thereby imposing on the weak and credulous, and otherwise living “irregularly”’ (BEJ, p. 55 n. 80) She was appealing to the High Court of Justiciary against the magistrates’ decree ordering her and her family to leave the town of Kilmarnock and the precincts thereof (South Circuit Appeal Book 1748–1803, 25 May 1767, NRS JC22/10; see also Earlier Years, p. 328).

Sunday 24 May Church all day very well.1 Went out with my Father & drank tea at Craigie.2 Neat little place[,] quite dutch. A large tulip tree. The Apple-trees all spread out low to receive the whole Sun. Sherrif Dundas3 has been at this Circuit. Just the old man. Felt now that former ideas of recommending myself to the County with anxious care were gone, & that I just did my duty & shewed my talents free & unconcerned.4 Sat at home all the evening to recover from a severe cold I had been troubled with. 1. See p. 172 n. 2. At Auchinleck, each of the two services lasted four hours (Corr. 8, p. li). 2. An estate with a mansion (Craigie House) in St. Quivox parish, in the Kyle district of Ayrshire, about 1 mile east by south of Ayr town and about 9 miles west of Auchinleck House. The estate was owned by Sir Thomas Wallace (1702–70) of Craigie, Bt., advocate (admitted 17 Dec. 1723)

(Ayr and Wigton, I. i. 295; Ayrshire, p. 284; OGS, ii. 295; Fac. Adv., p. 214; Comp. Bar. iv. 277). 3. Thomas Dundas (1706–84), advocate (admitted 5 Feb. 1730), Professor of Civil Law at University of Edinburgh 1732, sheriff-depute of Wigtownshire 1750, Clerk to the Pipe in Exchequer (Fac. Adv., p. 63). 4. JB had for long had, and would long retain, vague political ambitions. In

195

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 195

27/02/23 6:14 PM

24 may 1767 1763, he had informed WJT that when he returned from his travels on the Continent he would ‘put on the gown as a Member of the Faculty of Advocates, and be upon the footing of a Gentleman of Business with a view to my getting into Parliament’ (To WJT, 15 July 1763, Corr. 6, p. 42 (see

Introduction, p. 2 n. 8)). And in 1765 he had told JJ: ‘If I can get a seat in the house for a Parliament, I shall like it much, but shall not absolutely set my heart upon it’ (To JJ, 11 May 1765, Corr. 1, p. 165). See also To GD, 1 Jan. 1767, quoted in Introduction, p. 9. For a full account, see Pol. Car.

Monday 25 May Appeal of the Woman for necromancy,1 as to which see Justiciary Book. Heard Miss Blair2 was arrived. Sent Chaise for her. Company of Ladies dined & drank tea. Evening walked [ — ] then With Messrs. Mclure & Hay.3 Then rode out with Nairne to Rozell. Very comfortable with honest Bourtreehill.4 1. See p. 195 n. 9 above. The appeal came before Lord Auchinleck at the Southern Circuit of the High Court of Justiciary at Ayr, sitting in the Tolbooth. Claud Boswell appeared for the Procurator Fiscal. Lord Auchinleck reversed the sentence of the magistrates insofar as Nelly Barclay’s family was concerned; and having regard to certain informalities in the proceedings and Nelly Barclay’s offer ‘to Adduce further proof of her innocence of the Offences charged against her’, remitted the cause to the magistrates, recommending that, if the Procurator Fiscal should insist in a new prosecution, both parties should be given an opportunity of bringing such proof as they considered proper (South Circuit Appeal Book 1748–1803, 25 May 1767, NRS JC22/10; see also Earlier Years, p. 539). The case is not mentioned in the Consulta-

tion Book and there is no record of any fee having been charged by JB. 2. Catherine Blair of Adamton. 3. For McClure and Hay, see pp. 192–94 n. 5. JB would have a further consultation with McClure and Hay on 2 July after they had been released (LPJB 1, p. 382; Consultation Book). 4. Rozelle (or Rosel), an estate in Ayr parish, in the Kyle district of Ayrshire, 2 miles to the south of the town of Ayr and about 10 miles west of Auchinleck House, was owned by Robert Hamilton of Bourtreehill (1698–1773), who had purchased the estate in 1754 after making a fortune in Jamaica. He originally called the estate Rochelle, from a property of that name which he had owned in Jamaica (Ayr and Wigton, I. i. 152–53, III. i. 274–75; Ayrshire, p. 310; OGS, vi. 289; Ayr, p. 115).

Tuesday 26 May Early returned to Ayr. Breakfasted Baillie Niel’s1 with Mrs. & Miss Blair.2 Paid some visits. Then rode up to Stair3 where My Father and Balmuto4 met me. Mr. Steel there too.5 Miss Gordon6 & I at side table very gay. You felt the advantage of foreign ease. But Your vivacity still appears feverish in this cold & composed Country. Walked — Pant7 — Stayed all night. 1. James Neill, merchant in (and former bailie of) Ayr, father of James Neill, writer in Ayr, admitted burgess and guild

brother of Ayr 24 Sept. 1725, elected Provost (or Chancellor) of Prestwick 1731, 1733, 1735, 1737, 1739, 1741, 1750, 1752,

196

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 196

27/02/23 6:14 PM

29 may 1767 1760, 1762 and 1764 (BGBA, pp. 116 and 170; RBP, pp. 90 and 92–96). 2. Catherine Blair of Adamton and her mother, Anne Blair of Adamton. 3. An estate, with a tower house (Stair House) built in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century (RCAHMS, site number NS42SW 4, Archaeological Notes NS42SW 4 44001 23808), in Stair parish in the Kyle district of Ayrshire, about 4 miles west of Auchinleck House. The estate had been the seat of the Earls of Stair, but parts of the estate were alienated for some time, and in 1764 various parts, including Stair House, were acquired by Thomas Miller of Barskimming, the Lord Advocate (Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 731; Ayrshire, p. 314). Stair House has been described as ‘very pleasing and picturesque’ (MacGibbon and Ross, iii. 496). See also Coventry, p. 139; and Trantner, iii. 67. 4. Claud Boswell. 5. The Rev. John Steel (or Steele) (d. 1804) of Gadgirth, an estate in Coyl-

ton parish in the Kyle district of Ayrshire, ordained minister of Stair parish, Ayrshire, 14 Aug. 1735, ‘reprimanded by Presbytery for seeing Home’s Douglas in Edinburgh theatre, . . . agricultural improver, died “Father of the Church” aged 93’ (Ayrshire, p. 124; see also Fasti Scot. iii. 70). 6. Catharine Gordon, only daughter of Thomas Gordon (1713–67), younger of Earlston, and Katharine Campbell, daughter of Daniel Campbell, 1st of Shawfield. On her father’s death in 1767, she became heiress to the estates of Stair and Afton (McKerlie, iii. 425–26; Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed., p. 1065; Burke’s Landed Gentry, 6th ed., i. 257). ‘In 1770 she [would marry] Capt. (later Maj.-Gen.) Alexander Stewart, of the family of Stewart of Castle Stewart. Burns praised her “benevolence of temper and goodness of heart” (Letters of Robert Burns, ed. J. De L. Ferguson, 1931, i. 43)’ (Corr. 1, p. 244 n. 5). 7. MS. ‘Lant’. Pant was part of the lands of Stair (Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 732).

Wednesday 27 May Early set out. I went in chaise. Home to breakfast. Sherrif Dundas came & dined. Drole jokes. Had done no Corsica this long time.1 1. As noted at pp. 148–49 n. 2, JB had told WJT that he intended to finish his Account of Corsica by June (To WJT, 30 Mar., Corr. 6, p. 182) – in other words, before the beginning of the summer session of the

Court of Session on 12 June. ‘He not only succeeded, but also managed to carry through the entire task with zest and high spirits . . . In fact, he finished most of the writing during the month of April’ (Earlier Years, p. 323).

Thursday 28 May Mr. Claud1 & I went to Adamton, dined, past the afternoon agreably[.] [S]tayed all night. 1. Claud Boswell.

Friday 29 May Mrs. Blair & Miss came with us to Auchinleck. We rode by the Chaise. A Justice Court.1 Netherplace here,2 but not a crowd. All went well. After tea walked 197

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 197

27/02/23 6:14 PM

29 may 1767 down to the old Place3 & from thence up the waterside4 to the Broomholm5 & so home. 1. See pp. 175–76 n. 1. 2. Mungo Campbell (d. 1771) of Netherplace, an estate in Mauchline parish in the Kyle district of Ayrshire (Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 571; Ayrshire, p. 307; OGS, v. 102). 3. The castle, built in 1612 by James Boswell, 4th Laird of Auchinleck, situated about ½ mile to the west of the place where the new house (Auchinleck House, completed in 1762) would be built by Lord Auchinleck. The Old Place, with its ‘Gothic vaults and thick walls’ (Earlier Years, p. 19), was in the Scots Renaissance style (Corr. 8, p. xxxvii n. 20) and was ‘a typical Scots towerhouse of the period, but a rather grand version of such, with some unusual decorative features’ (Love, pp. 39–40). Even as late as the 1860s, this

old castle was said to be ‘pretty entire’, although ‘overgrown with ivy’ (Ayr and Wigton, I. i. 187). For further details, and for an illustration of the castle as it was in 1789, see Love, pp. 38–40; MacGibbon and Ross, iii. 497; and Davis, pp. 19 and 158. JB often referred to the grounds surrounding the Old Place and the new house as ‘romantic’. For example, in a letter to JJ in 1759 he had written: ‘Auchinleck is a most sweet, romantic Place. There is a vast deal of Wood and Water, fine retired shady walks, and every thing that can render the Country agreable to contemplative Minds’ (To JJ, 26 Sept. 1759, Corr. 1, p. 3). 4. That is, along the Lugar Water. 5. For the Broomholm, see pp. 154–55 n. 2.

Saturday 30 May My Father would not let them go. Wettish weather. We walked to the Grotto,1 & down the Grotto-Walk & then to the old Place. Miss Blair & Mr. Claud & I walked to the top of the old Castle,2 & then with Mr. Overseer Bruce3 we made the compleat round of the Avenues & came in by the Hern Gate.4 Polquhairn[,]5 Mr. Thos. Wallace6 &c dined. Dr. Johnston7 called after dinner. We walked again to the natural Bridge.8 I had a deep return of gloom. I wished the Ladies away. I was quite discontented. At night recovered. Looked at medals.9 1. The grotto had been formed by cutting into the soft sandstone along the Dippol Burn where it runs immediately to the north of Auchinleck House (Corr. 8, p. xxxix). SJ would refer to it after his visit to Auchinleck in 1773: ‘At no great distance from the house runs a pleasing brook, by a red rock, out of which has been hewn a very agreeable and commodious summer-house, at less expence, as Lord Auchinleck told me, than would have been required to build a room of the same dimensions. The rock seems to have no more dampness than any other wall’ (Journey to the Western Islands, ii. 379).

2. The ruins of the original home of the Boswells, an ancient castle ‘inherited from the Auchinlecks and situated on a commanding site overlooking the Lugar Water and Dippol Burn’ (Corr. 8, p. xxxvii), about 200 yards away from the Old Place (for which, see n. 3 above). The castle stood on a high rock of red sandstone, and the ruins and their surroundings would be described in 1863 as follows: ‘The castle, only a portion of one wall of which, with a few arches and other fragments, now remains, is surrounded on the Lugar and opposite side by deep precipices. The other two sides are accessible by steep ascents, the

198

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 198

27/02/23 6:14 PM

31 may 1767 old zig-zagging approaches upon which are still traceable . . . The scenery in the vicinity is remarkably picturesque, the rocks circumscribing the stream being in many places upwards of a hundred feet high. The [Dippol Burn] winds through a gorge one hundred and fifty feet deep, the sides of which are finely planted with wood. Several bridges span the ravine in a very romantic manner’ (Ayr and Wigton, I. i. 186). JB gives us this description of the scene: ‘On one side of the rock on which [the] ruins stand runs the river Lugar, which is here of considerable breadth, and is bordered by other high rocks, shaded with wood. On the other side runs a brook, skirted in the same manner, but on a smaller scale. I cannot figure a more romantic scene’ (Journ. 4 Nov. 1773, Hebrides, pp. 372–73). The ruins as they stood in 1789 are illustrated in Grose, Vol. 2, facing p. 43. For further details, see Love, pp. 18–20. SJ, after his visit to Auchinleck in 1773, would remark: ‘I was . . . less delighted with the elegance of the modern mansion, than with the sullen dignity of the old castle. I clambered with Mr. Boswell among the ruins, which afford striking images of ancient life. It is, like other castles, built upon a point of rock, and was, I believe, anciently surrounded with a moat. There is another rock near it, to which the drawbridge, when it was let down, is said to have reached’ (Journey to the Western Islands, ii. 378). 3. James Bruce, overseer of the Auchinleck estate. 4. ‘Hern Gate stood on the estate road from Auchinleck House towards the turnpike at Howford’ (Corr. 8, p. 223), Howford being about ¾ mile north of Auchinleck House (map of Estate of

Auchinleck c. 1787 in Corr. 8, following p. 243). 5. Adam Craufurd Newall of Polquhairn. 6. Thomas Wallace, who appears to have resided in Cumnock, Ayrshire (Journ. 5 Oct. 1776, Extremes, p. 39). 7. Dr. Daniel Johnston. 8. Lord Auchinleck built several bridges over the Dippol Burn (Corr. 8, p. xxxix). It is not clear which bridge is meant by the ‘natural bridge’, although JB gives some indication of its position in his journal entry for 24 Aug. 1780: ‘David [JB’s brother] and I walked to the natural bridge, Barnsdale [shown to the east of Auchinleck House on the map of the Estate of Auchinleck c. 1787 in Corr. 8, following p. 243], and along the burn to Gulzie Mailing [shown on the map as being to the north-east of Auchinleck House]’ (Laird, p. 233). This is presumably a reference to a ‘natural’ bridge as opposed to a man-made one – in other words, a rock formation forming an arch. However, there is currently no such rock formation over the Dippol Burn; and, if JB is referring to such a formation, it presumably collapsed some time later. Apart from JB’s reference to it, nothing is known about the existence in the eighteenth century of any such formation or of any other kind of formation over the burn which could be said to have been a ‘natural bridge’. 9. Lord Auchinleck’s collection of medals. The collection included the coin of Oliver Cromwell which would trigger the confrontation between Lord Auchinleck and SJ at Auchinleck House in Nov. 1773, made famous as a result of JB’s published account of it (Journ. 6 Nov. 1773, Hebrides, pp. 375–76).

Sunday 31 May All at church. We had our dues. First the twopenny1 which was to be cleared off to make room for the strong ale to be decanted in the stoup.2 My Father filled allways the other Capfull3 to Mr. Claud & me & said He made Slop-bowls of us. All went well. Honest Hallglenmuir4 was with us.5 Yet I looked some years before 199

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 199

27/02/23 6:14 PM

31 may 1767 me, & saw that I would not feel then as I figure in prospect, no more than I feel now what I have figured in years past. At night walked at the old place, and down to the cave at the back of the garden.6 1. For ‘twopenny’, see p. 195 n. 4. 2. A stoup was a ‘wooden pail or bucket . . . [usually] narrower at the mouth than at the bottom to prevent spilling’ (DSL (SND), s.v. ‘stowp’). 3. A cap was a wooden cup or bowl (CSD). 4. Alexander Mitchell of Hallglenmuir. 5. JB would record a similar occasion at Auchinleck on Sunday, 6 June 1779: ‘I went to church . . . I stayed between ser-

mons, and had Hallglenmuir and Old John Boswell [father of John Boswell of Knockroon] at bread and cheese and ale quite in the old style of the family, and did very well’ (Journ. 6 June 1779, Laird, p. 107). 6. JB often enjoyed visiting the garden at the Old Place (which he would start to call the Old House). In 1780, for example, he would record walking ‘to the Old House and Garden. It was truly a feast to my mind to see all the scenes of my youth’ (Journ. 16 Aug. 1780, Laird, p. 228).

Monday 1 June The Ladies agreed to stay one day longer. But it was a wet day. My mind had been relaxed by elegant dissipation. I called myself to my post & wrote Corsica as well as ever. At night Bruce Campbell with us. Too free & rampageneous.1 Time must cure all. 1. The word ‘rampageneous’ would be used by GD in a letter to JB of 7 Mar. 1769 (Corr. 7, p. 152). ‘Rampaging’ was one of GD’s favourite expressions; and during the period 1770–82 JB would ‘adopt the pseudonym of “Rampager” for a number of humorous essays published in Pub. Adv.’ (ibid., p. 153 n. 7). The essays took the form of letters. JB’s ‘choice of name and persona for these letters is a tribute to his relationship with [GD] . . . “Rampag-

ing” . . . and its derivatives seem to have formed part of [their] private vocabulary. [GD] is the “rampageneous” friend whose relationship with [JB] is the starting point of the letter of November 25, 1771 (no. 7) . . . In the second essay [May 12, 1770], . . . [JB] defines his outlook, saying that to rampage “signifies to indulge in joyous extravagant Merriment, free of all Care and Malice”’ (Facts and Inventions, pp. 112–13, 129, 156).

Tuesday 2 June Went with the Ladies to Coylsfield.1 Fine day. At nine pins with Messrs. Claud, Bruce Campbell & Sandie Montgomerie2 & then all four in dining room with coats off, played at the hand ball quite keen. Was pleased to relax a little into youthfull frolic. Rather too impetuous here. Better so than being too bashfull. Home at night. Auchinleck seemed desolate, without the Ladies.3 1. Coilsfield, an estate in Tarbolton parish in the Kyle district of Ayrshire (Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 764; Ayrshire, p. 283), about 4

miles north-west of Auchinleck House. The estate was the home of Alexander Montgomerie (d. 1783) of Coilsfield (Corr. 8,

200

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 200

27/02/23 6:14 PM

3 june 1767 p. 78 n. 1). In 1783, after visiting Montgomerie when he was very ill, JB would record that he found him ‘genteel and social as ever’ (Journ. 29 Oct. 1783, Applause, p. 166). 2. Probably Alexander Montgomerie (1744–1802), third son of Alexander Montgomerie of Coilsfield and Lilias (Montgomerie), eldest daughter of Sir Robert Montgomerie (d. 1731) of Skelmorlie, Bt. (Clan MacFarlane; Corr. 8, p. 78 n. 1; Burke’s LGS, p. 1037; Comp. Bar. ii. 336).

3. JB would report to WJT ten days later that Miss Blair (and her mother) stayed at Auchinleck for four days. ‘[She] is the finest Woman I have ever seen . . . and in our romantic groves I adored her like a Divinity . . . My Father is very desirous I should marry her . . . She looked quite at home in the house of Auchinleck. Her Picture would be an Ornament to the Gallery’ (To WJT, 12 June 1767, Corr. 6, p. 187).

Wednesday 3 June From this day till I left Auchinleck I omitted to mark daily the incidents of my life. In general I was at home, and much composed and happy. I went over one day & drank tea at Barquharrie;1 & one day when Gilmillscroft2 and Hallglenmuir dined at Auchinleck, I proposed to them to take a ride up & see the Coalwork at Barclachin3 which we accordingly did. As we returned by our Village I said Gilmillscroft are you dry? Cooper Gib4 has good twopenny.5 The Laird relished the Proposal. Up came the worthy Physician (Doctor Johnston6) & in we all went to Cooper Gib’s (the Provost) where we had Twopenny with Cap & Stoup7 & drank like fishes while the Provost & the Overseer (James Bruce) who was also of the party drank punch at a bye table. We drank agriculture[,] Trade[,] mines & minerals[,] Coal & lime &c and Miss Blair in all manner of ways. Her speedy return to the loft of Auchinleck kirk8 &c. We sung most nobly & towards the end of the evening We got rum in gills & took a pap in:9 all the time eating Bread & Cheese[,] both raw & roasted. We then got in Halbert the Schoolmaster10 & drank to the rising generation. Time gallop’d away. I loved to be a perfect Scots Laird of the last age. We were vastly joyous. At ten Gilmillscroft went away.11 1. For Barquharrie, see p. 151 n. 1. The estate was about 2¼ miles south of Auchinleck House. 2. Alexander Farquhar, Laird of Gilmillscroft. 3. Barglachan, in the Auchinleck estate, about ¾ mile north-east of Auchinleck village (map of Estate of Auchinleck c. 1787 in Corr. 8, following p. 243). The farm there, which was let to Alexander Gibson (d. 1782), ‘became the site of Birnieknowe coal works from 1767’ (ibid., p. 214). Excellent coal had been ‘wrought from time immemorial’ on Auchinleck estate (Stat. Acct. Scot. vi. 14).

4. James Gibb (fl. 1757–73), commonly referred to as ‘Provost’ or ‘Cooper’ Gibb, evidently at this time a tavern-keeper in Auchinleck village. The nickname ‘Cooper’ probably derived from what seems to have been his first trade, as the Auchinleck baptismal record for the first child of his marriage with Margaret McKerrow (married 25 June 1756 (OPRBM)), John (bap. 8 May 1757 (OPRBB)), describes him as ‘Couper’. He also occupied the Auchinleck farm of Meadowhead (parish record of baptism of second child of the marriage, Anna, 5 May 1759 (OPRBB); parish record of baptism of youngest child of the marriage, Charles, 19

201

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 201

27/02/23 6:14 PM

3 june 1767 Dec. 1773 (OPRBB); letter dated 24 Sept. 1773 from Andrew Rankin to James Gibb (Yale MS. C 2342 (Catalogue, iii. 872)), addressed to ‘Mr. James Gibb, Provost, of Meadowhead, Auchinleck, Ayr, No. [North] Britain’, and endorsed by JB, ‘An Original Letter from an Auchinleck Parish Man, a wild fellow who enlisted in the guards, to James Gibb commonly called Provost of Auchinleck. It came a little before Dr. Johnson was at Auchinleck. He was much entertained with it.’). 5. For ‘twopenny’, see p. 195 n. 4. 6. Dr. Daniel Johnston. 7. See p. 200 nn. 2 and 3 above. 8. For the loft at Auchinleck Kirk, see p. 146 n. 1. 9. Pap-in: a drink ‘made of light ale and oatmeal with a small quantity of [whisky] or brandy added’ (CSD). 10. William Halbert (fl. 1764–1819 (Corr. 8, index, p. 265)), schoolmaster in

the parish of Auchinleck, ‘was appointed in 1764 with a salary augmented by fees from parents for each course taught. He also served as Precentor and Clerk to the kirk session, led the singing of psalms, and collected parochial dues’ (Corr. 8, p. li). ‘In 1787 Halbert was dismissed as collector of road conversion money, “utterly insufficient for his task” and “very negligent in his Accounts” (Turnpike Trust minutes in McClure, [Tolls and Tacksmen,] p. 20)’ (Corr. 8, p. li n. 86). 11. The 1767 journal breaks off at this point. A sense of JB’s multifarious activities for the latter half of 1767 can be gleaned from his letters to and from WJT, 12 June to 24 Dec., in Corr. 6, pp. 187– 219; from letters and other documents in Search of a Wife, Heinemann pp. 74–120, McGraw-Hill pp. 69–112; and also from the letters for this period in Corr. 5, pp. 170–268).

202

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 202

27/02/23 6:14 PM

1768

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 203

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 204

27/02/23 6:14 PM

1 january 1768

Friday 1 January1 Busy all day drawing Replies in the Forfar Elections.2 1. Here JB, in Edinburgh, resumes his journal. This journal, designated ‘J 13’ in the Yale editors’ cataloguing system, occupies ‘34 numbered quarto pages and an unpaged title-leaf (i.e. 18 leaves), loose’ (Catalogue, i. 8). The title-leaf reads ‘Journal, 1768, From January 1 to Febry. 27.’ 2. The 1768 general election was imminent, and campaigning for the constituency of Forfarshire was fierce. The candidates were William Maule (1700–82), 1st Earl of Panmure (in the Irish peerage), of Kelly in the parish of Arbirlot, Forfarshire, and Thomas Lyon (1741–96) of Pitpointy, and later of Hallgreen (an estate he would purchase, apparently soon after this time, from James Coutts (for whom, see pp. 219– 20 n. 2)), and of Hetton House, Durham. Panmure, who had a distinguished military career, fighting at Dettingen in 1743 and Fontenoy in 1745 and ultimately rising to the rank of Gen. in 1770, had been M.P. for Forfarshire since 1735. Lyon, third son of Thomas Lyon (1704–53), 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and Jean Nicholson (1713–78) (Scots Peer. viii. 308–10), had become ‘a parliamentary candidate in 1766, when his brother [John Lyon (1737– 76), 9th Earl (Scots Peer. viii. 310–11)], in anticipation of the vast fortune accruing to him by his approaching marriage to Mary Bowes, a great heiress [Mary Eleanor Bowes (1749–1800), whom he married on 24 Feb. 1767 (Scots Peer. viii. 310–11)], embarked upon a campaign to wrest Forfarshire and Aberdeen Burghs from the Panmure interest’, and ‘won the support of Administration and of the Bute party in Scotland’ (Namier and Brooke, iii. 73). The 9th Earl had been elected one of the representative peers of Scotland in Oct. of the preceding year, and would be re-elected in the 1768 and 1774 general elections (Scots Peer. viii. 310).   The franchise in county elections in Scotland was restricted to ‘a small number

of substantial landowners’ (Namier and Brooke, i. 38), who had to be enrolled in the Roll of Freeholders for the county (the eligibility for enrolment in which was set out in the Election of Commissioners Act 1681 (RPS, 1681/7/45)). ‘The Roll of Freeholders “was made up annually [by the freeholders] at the Michaelmas head court of the county and immediately before an election. These head court meetings were frequently trials of strength between the contending interests, and it is not too much to say that a Scottish election began immediately after the last one had ended” (Namier and Brooke, i. 38–39). The right under section 4 of the Parliamentary Elections Act 1742 [16 Geo. 2, c. 11] to challenge decisions in the Court of Session . . . , and to appeal therefrom to the House of Lords, meant that in Scotland elections “were frequently decided in the courts” (ibid., p. 39)’ (LPJB 2, p. 95 n. 4). Landowners in county elections often created extra votes by sub-dividing their properties among reliable supporters of particular candidates. ‘Nominal and fictitious votes, created by the ingenuity of feudal conveyancers, had become widespread (Ferguson, pp. 274–9). These votes were often brought about “by subtle conveyancing forms which . . . conferred upon the assignee nothing of real value except a claim for enrolment as a freeholder” (ibid., p. 274)’ (LPJB 1, p. 160 n. 556).   In the Forfarshire election both sides created extra votes (although Lyon did not allow his to be enrolled) and many of Panmure’s were challenged in the Court of Session (Namier and Brooke, i. 482). Between 23 Dec. 1767 and 11 Mar. 1768, the Court of Session would pronounce thirty-six interlocutors ordering that the relevant person in each case be expunged from the Roll (Extractors’ Minute Book, Durie’s Office, NRS CS23/1/3). However, the House

205

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 205

27/02/23 6:14 PM

1 january 1768 of Lords in sixteen appeals would order that the interlocutors appealed against be reversed and the relevant persons restored to the Roll (JHL 19 Feb., 23 Feb., 4 Mar. and 2 Dec. 1768, xxxii. 88, 95–96, 125–27, 190). On 1 Jan. 1768, JB drafted Replies in two separate cases, both relating to the Roll of Freeholders of Forfarshire. One was in the case of William Milne v. Captain Alexander Mckenzie. Milne (or Mill) (1733–71) (Clan MacFarlane; Warden, iv. 311–12), who resided in the village of Bonnington (or Bonnytown or Bonnyton) in the parish of Arbirlot, Forfarshire, had presented a Petition and Complaint to the Court of Session seeking to have Capt. Mckenzie (who resided in the parish of Stracathro, Forfarshire) struck off the Roll. McKenzie (or Mackenzie), who served in the 31st Regt. of Foot, America, would become Maj. in that regiment on 27 May (Army List, 1771, p. 85 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/21)), would rise to the rank of Lt.Col. on 28 Apr. 1773 (Army List, 1773, p. 85 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/23)) and would die in or about 1777 (Army List, 1777, p. 85 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/27(1))). At the Michaelmas head court held by the freeholders on 6 Oct. 1767, titles in relation to certain lands in Stracathro had been produced and it had been argued on the basis of these that Capt. Mckenzie, as ‘heir apparent of conquest’ of his deceased uncle, Colin Mckenzie (or Mackenzie) of Stracathro (formerly a merchant in Jamaica (Dobson, ii. 71)), who had died the preceding year, should be enrolled in the Roll. Colin McKenzie’s will (proven 5 Mar. 1767) appointed his brother ‘John Mackenzie late Surgeon in the British Hospital [i.e. in Jamaica] my only Brother now in life to be my Heir and Executor recommending to him to help and assist my nephew Captain Alexander Mackenzie – and any other of my relations and his who may stand in need’ (Ancestry (England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384–1858)). In spite of objections, the freeholders ordered Capt.

Mckenzie’s name to be added to the Roll. In the Petition and Complaint for William Milne, drafted by John Swinton, advocate (admitted 20 Dec. 1743, appointed sheriffdepute of Perthshire 1754, later appointed Lord of Session (as Lord Swinton) 21 Dec. 1782, d. 1799 (College of Justice, p. 536)), it was argued, among other things, that Capt. Mckenzie’s being served and returned heir of conquest of his uncle was ‘a mere farce in order to make a sham qualification to him’ (Court of Session Extracted Processes, Durie’s Office, 22 Jan. 1768 (NRS CS25, box 890)). Answers were lodged on behalf of Capt. Mckenzie, and on 31 Dec. 1767 James Smyth, W.S. (admitted 5 Apr. 1742, d. 1781 (W.S. Register, p. 296)), instructed JB to draft Replies (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, p. 397). In his Replies, dated 2 Jan. 1768 and extending to seven pages in the handwriting of a clerk, JB submitted, among other things, that no evidence had been laid before the meeting of freeholders that Capt. Mckenzie was heir of conquest of his uncle. On 22 Jan., the Inner House of the Court of Session would pronounce an interlocutor finding that the freeholders had done wrong in admitting Capt. Mckenzie to the Roll of Freeholders and therefore ordered that his name be expunged from the Roll (Court of Session Extracted Processes, Durie’s Office, 22 Jan. 1768 (NRS CS25, box 890)). No appeal to the House of Lords would be made in this case.   The other case in which JB drafted Replies was the case of George Skene v. George Graham, in which Skene (who resided at Skene, Aberdeenshire) had presented a Petition and Complaint to the Court of Session seeking to have George Graham (who resided at Flemington in the parish of Aberlemno, Forfarshire) struck off the Roll. At the Michaelmas head court held by the freeholders on 6 Oct. 1767, Graham was enrolled on the basis of being infeft in certain lands in Forfarshire. In the Petition and Complaint (drafted by Robert McQueen) it was argued, among other things, that Graham did not possess lands

206

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 206

27/02/23 6:14 PM

2 january 1768 of a sufficient valuation (i.e. £400 Scots) to entitle him to be put on the Roll. It was also argued, insofar as one of the lands in question was concerned, that he was not in possession of any part of it, as the person who had conveyed the land to him was uplifting and intromitting with the rents and profits of the whole of that land for his own use, with the consequence that Graham’s interest in the land was ‘extremely insignificant’ and ‘a nominal and fictitious right calculated for no other purpose under the sun than that of creating a Freehold qualification’ (Court of Session Extracted Processes, Durie’s Office, 9 Mar. 1768 (NRS CS25, box 894)). Answers were lodged on behalf of Graham, and on 1 Jan. 1768 James Smyth instructed JB to draft Replies (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, p. 397). In his Replies, dated 2 Jan. 1768 and extending to nine pages in the handwriting of a clerk, JB submitted, among other things, that Graham’s titles bore that he was ‘Infeft in the full and absolute property of the Lands’, whereas, when taking the statutory oath which he was obliged to take, he had said that he was in possession of the superiority, which oath ‘was the same thing as if he had not sworn at all’ and therefore afforded a strong objection. On 9 Mar., after evidence had been led, the Inner House of the Court

of Session would pronounce an interlocutor finding that the objection of nominal and fictitious made against Graham’s title was not proven, repelling the whole of the objections, and finding that the freeholders had done right in admitting Graham to the Roll. On 10 Mar., JB would draft a reclaiming petition (extending to fifteen pages in the handwriting of a clerk) in which he argued that there were sufficient grounds to find that Graham’s qualification was nominal and fictitious. However, by interlocutor dated 30 June 1768 the Inner House would adhere to its former interlocutor (Court of Session Extracted Processes, Durie’s Office, 9 Mar. 1768 (NRS CS25, box 894)). There would be no appeal to the House of Lords in this case. The outcome of the Forfarshire election was that Panmure was once again returned as M.P. for the constituency, which he was to hold until his death in 1782 (Namier and Brooke, i. 482). Lyon was returned as M.P. for the Aberdeen Burghs, which constituency he held until 1778 (Namier and Brooke, iii. 73). The ‘struggle [in the 1768 election] was so exhausting to both sides that it resulted in a family compact by which it was settled that the Houses of Panmure and Strathmore should in future return a member alternately’ (Scots Peer. viii. 309).

Saturday 2 January Went with my Father to Arniston. By the way talked of the antiquities & constitution of the Election law in Scotland. Found it difficult to fix my attention. But by degrees wrought my mind into a knowledge of the subject. Was amazed at my Fathers memory and patience.1 Well at Arniston. All old ideas had no longer any force, but the traces of them diversified and amused my thoughts.2 At night played Whist. Still had gloom, because I have never played at it when well, so as to get free of former prejudices.3 About 9 my father was taken ill with his old complaint.4 Thomas5 went express to Edinburgh. The President6 shewed a friendly concern which will ever make him be regarded by me. For some hours, my father was in agony. In the view of death he gave me the best & most affectionate advices. He spoke of Miss Blair as the Woman whom he wished I would marry.7 How strong was this. I was in terrible concern. He said if business did not succeed with me after his death, I should retire to the country. He charged me to take care of my 207

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 207

27/02/23 6:14 PM

2 january 1768 brothers,8 to be a worthy man & keep up the character of the family. I firmly resolved to be as he wished, though in somewhat a different taste of life. I looked my watch a hundred times. A quarter before one Thomas arrived with the Catheter. In five minutes my father was easy. What a happy change! Went calmly to bed. It was an intense frost, & the ground was covered with snow. 1. In the autumn of 1771, Lord Auchinleck would dictate to JB a work entitled Observations on the election law of Scotland, of which fifty copies would be privately printed in 1825 by J. A. Maconochie, Edinburgh (Boswell’s Books, #3872, pp. 401–02). 2. JB is perhaps referring to some of the ideas that had occurred to him during his visit to Arniston in Jan. 1767 (for which, see the entries for 10–12 Jan. 1767). 3. JB had expressed the opinion that playing cards was ‘low and unworthy’ (Mem. 12 Jan. 1764, Holland, Heinemann p. 116, McGraw-Hill p. 119). He would later tell WJT of a resolve ‘never to play at a game of chance, and never at whist but for a trifle to make up a party’ (To WJT, 24 Aug. 1768, Corr. 6, p. 241). But his future practice remained inconsistent, and would feature many relapses. By late 1772, ‘Whistplaying had become a steady diversion, and early [in 1773] . . . for the first time [JB] held a whist-party in his own home’ (Later Years, p. 44). On one occasion in 1775 JB played whist all night ‘until Lawrie, his clerk, found the group “sitting like wizards” [Journ. 12 Dec. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 196] at seven in the morning; they played on until nine when [JB] had to appear in court’ (Later Years, p. 121). His later Edinburgh journals also report much social card-playing, including on many occasions at the home of Alexander Gordon (Lord Rockville) and Lady Dumfries. In Brady’s general summary, JB ‘got caught up in gambling, had no card sense, couldn’t concentrate, and felt irritated and guilty when he lost’ (Later Years, p. 194). 4. By letter dated 16 Sept. 1765, Lord Auchinleck had informed JB that he had been suffering from ‘a total suppression

or obstruction of urine’ which had only been relieved by an ‘operation’ (presumably the application of a catheter) twice a day (Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 226, McGraw-Hill p. 214; Yale MS. C 228). The ailment, which would afflict Lord Auchinleck for the remainder of his life, was ‘probably due to an enlarged prostate’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 121 n. 3, McGraw-Hill p. 113 n. 1) and had been induced by sitting for nine hours without getting up from his seat while listening to the evidence of the prosecution’s main witness in the celebrated trial of Lt. Patrick Ogilvie (otherwise Ogilvy, d. 1765) and Katharine Nairn in Aug. 1765 (Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 225 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 213 n. 8). For a detailed account of the trial, see Trial of Katharine Nairn. The disorder, in contemporary medical terms a ‘strangury’, seems to have been hereditary in the males of the family (see letter of Sir William Forbes of 12 May 1795 to his wife about JB’s death, Corr. 10, pp. 308–09 and n. 3). 5. JB’s servant, Thomas Edmondson. 6. Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session. 7. JB’s courtship of Catherine Blair was not going as his father might have hoped (see Introduction, pp. 33–34). On 18 Dec. 1767 JB had been at a concert with her in Edinburgh and they had had supper afterwards at Lord Kames’s house, but JB found her ‘distant and reserved’; on the following evening, when attending a performance of Othello together, he again found her ‘distant’; and on 21 Dec., finding her alone and feeling that she did not seem distant, he told her that he was ‘most sincerely in love with her’, but when he asked her if she had ‘any particular liking’ for him she replied that she really had ‘no particular

208

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 208

27/02/23 6:14 PM

4 january 1768 liking’ for him and liked ‘many people as well as [him]’ (To WJT, 24 Dec. 1767, Corr. 6, pp. 217–18). Although JB nevertheless ‘admired her more than ever’, he reflected that his Account of Corsica, when published, could not fail to do him credit and therefore ‘why do I allow myself to be uneasy for a

Scots lass? . . . Kate has not enough fire. She does not know the value of her lover. If . . . she still remains cold, she does not deserve me . . . I will break the enchanting fetters’ (ibid., p. 219). 8. Lt. John Boswell and David (later Thomas David) Boswell.

Sunday 3 January My father was quite easy. I went out for an hour with the President in his Chariot.1 Talked freely on the Douglas Cause.2 Heard how it struck him in its various points. Saw how foolish the suspicions against him were.3 Resolved to take men as I find them. Was assured by the President that I should do well as a Lawyer. Saw no difficulties in life. Saw that all depends on our frame of mind. Lord and Lady Hyndford were here.4 The day past well. In the evening I adored my God, I had now no doubt of the christian Revelation. I was quite satisfied with my being. I hoped to be happy with Miss B. 1. ‘Chariot’ was a term for a ‘light four-wheeled carriage with only back seats’ (SOED). 2. For the Douglas Cause, see Introduction, pp. 20–29. All fifteen of the Court of Session judges (the Lord President and fourteen Lords Ordinary) had delivered opinions in the cause between 7 and 14 July 1767. As there was a possibility that the Lord President’s casting vote would be needed, he had declared it ‘my duty to speak first, to state my opinion and the grounds of it, not doubting but that, if it is erroneous, some of your Lordships who are to speak after me will correct me’ (Anderson, Speeches, p. 1). The Lord President’s speech was in favour of Hamilton. On 14 July, when it was found that seven judges had voted in favour of Hamilton and seven in favour of Douglas, the Lord President gave his casting vote in favour of Hamilton (see Introduction, p. 24). In the opinion delivered by the Lord President, he stated that he found

Douglas’s story ‘improbable’, ‘inconsistent’, attended by ‘many dark and mysterious circumstances’ and supported by ‘falsehoods’ (Anderson, Speeches, pp. 7, 9 and 16). The Lord President was being very indulgent towards JB in speaking about the Douglas Cause, for it was well known that JB was a fervent supporter of the Douglas camp. 3. But JB would later express quite different views to Lord Mansfield with regard to the Lord President’s speech in the case (see entry for 20 May). 4. John Carmichael (1710–87) of Castlecraig, advocate (admitted 25 Jan. 1737), who had succeeded as 4th Earl of Hyndford the preceding year, and Janet Grant (d. 1818), Countess of Hyndford, the eldest daughter of William Grant, Lord Prestongrange (Lord of Session and Lord Commissioner of Justiciary 1754–64), and Grizel Miller (BEJ, p. 61 n. 3; Fac. Adv., pp. 31 and 89–90; College of Justice, pp. 518–20).

Monday 4 January After breakfast set off. My father remarked how foolish & wicked evil-speaking was. The President afforded a good instance, as so many false reports had been 209

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 209

27/02/23 6:14 PM

4 january 1768 raised against him as to the Douglas Cause.1 We dined at Newbottle.2 I experienced that calm tranquillity in presence of great people for which I have often wished and have now acquired. Much attention was paid me. Returned to town. Supt Sir George Preston’s.3 1. MS. ‘Douglas-Cause’. 2. That is, Newbattle, the ancient spelling of which being ‘Neubotle’, meaning ‘new dwelling’ (OGS). A reference to Newbattle Abbey, the seat of William Henry Kerr (c. 1710–75), who had succeeded as 4th Marquis of Lothian the preceding year (having formerly been known as Earl of Ancram). In 1735 he had married the wealthy Lady Caroline D’Arcy (d. 1778), daughter of Robert D’Arcy (1681–1722), 3rd Earl of Holdernesse, and Lady Frederica Schomberg (c. 1688–1751). She brought him £20,000. They had two daughters and a son (William John Kerr (1737–1815), who would succeed as 5th Marquis). He joined the army as a Cornet in the 11th Dragoons 1735, promoted to Capt. in the 11th Regt. of Foot 1739 and 1st Regt. of Foot Guards 1741, Lt.-Col. of the 11th Dragoons 1745, Col. in the army 1745, aide-de-camp to the Duke of Cumberland 1745–46, severely wounded at the battle of Fontenoy on 11 May 1745, commanded cavalry at the battle of Culloden on 16 Apr. 1746, Col. of the 24th Regt. of Foot 1747–52, Col. of the 11th Dragoons 1752–75, Maj.-Gen. 1755, Lt.-Gen. 1758, ultimately rising to Gen. in 1770, M.P. for Richmond 1747–63, elected one of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland 1768, knighted (Order of the Thistle) 1768 (Scots Peer. v. 480–81; Comp. Peer. vi. 536–37; Namier and Brooke, iii. 11–12; Oxford DNB). The mansion of Newbattle Abbey, about 2 miles to the south of Dalkeith, Midlothian, ‘in a quiet and fertile valley [and] surrounded with gentle wooden eminences enclosing rich meadows’ (MacGibbon and Ross, iii. 354), occupied the site of a Cistercian monastery founded by King David I in 1140 (OGS, v. 105). John Macky, writing in 1723, described the mansion as follows: ‘[T]he Entry to the Palace is as magnificent as can be imagin’d. In the Area,

between the Avenue and the outer Gate, is the Statue of a Gladiator; and on each Side of the Gate there is a large Stone Pavilion; and through four square green Courts you come to the Palace, each of the three first Courts having Rows of Statues on each Side, as big as the Life; and in the fourth Court the biggest Holley Trees I ever saw. You ascend to the Apartments by a great double Stair on the Outside of the House’ (Macky, pp. 52–53). In about 1770, and later, substantial alterations would be made to the building (McWilliam, pp. 348–49). 3. Sir George Preston (d. 1779) of Valleyfield, Bt. (Comp. Bar. ii. 426). His wife was JB’s mother’s aunt, Lady Anne Preston (née Cochrane). JB was a regular visitor to Valleyfield (in Culross parish, about 1½ miles from the town of Culross), both as a young boy and in adulthood (see, e.g., Journ. 24–27 Sept. 1774, Ominous Years, pp. 4–6). He would come to value the care and kindness of the Prestons after his marriage, especially given the coldness and disapproval his father and stepmother would show him and Margaret. On the occasion of a later supper at the Prestons’ home in Edinburgh, JB would record that he and his wife ‘were made most heartily welcome, and so much kindness was shown that I observed tears in my wife’s eyes. Sir George and Lady Preston have been really like parents to us for these several years, and I am happy to think that we have made an affectionate return’ (Journ. 30 Dec. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 207). After a visit to Valleyfield in 1780, JB would record: ‘I was as fond of Culross, and had my mind as serenely filled with such sentiments and affections as my dear mother gave me, as at the best periods of my youngest life’ (Journ 3 Oct. 1780, Laird, p. 256). Williamson, p. 60, stating the position in 1773/74, gives the Prestons’ Edinburgh residence as being on the Castle Hill.

210

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 210

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7 january 1768

Tuesday 5 January I was at home all day except calling half an hour for Sallys mother.1 Felt all inclination gone & that I now acted from principle alone. 1. Mrs. Dodds.

Wednesday 6 January In all day. Mathew Dickie dined with us. The terrible cold weather made me consider keeping warm as almost business enough.

Thursday 7 January Breakfast Mr. Webster’s.1 Old ideas revived in an agreable manner. When my mind was weak, ideas were too powerful for me. I am now strong, I can discern all their qualities but am master of them. I was formerly[,] in many articles of thought, like a Boy who fires a gun. He startles at the noise, and being unable to wield it, he can direct it to no steady point. I am now master of my gun, and can manage it with ease. I called for Lord Leven[,]2 visited Mr. Geo. Frazer,3 called for Lord Dalhousie[,]4 visited Lady Craufurd.5 Miss Montgomerie[,]6 Jo. & Geo. Frazers dined.7 1. The Rev. Alexander Webster. 2. David Leslie (1722–1802), 6th Earl of Leven and 5th Earl of Melville. His mother was Mary Erskine, eldest daughter of Col. John Erskine of Carnock (1662–1743) (Scots Peer. vi. 114; Comp. Peer. vii. 622; Cruickshanks, Handley and Hayton, iii. 986, s.v. John Erskine of the Sand Haven, Culross), a kinsman of JB’s maternal grandfather, Lt.-Col. John Erskine of Alva (1660–1737), Deputy Governor of Stirling Castle (Earlier Years, p. 455; Ominous Years, Chart IV, p. 377). He was educated at Edinburgh University and afterwards (1740–42) at Groningen, Holland. He joined the army as an Ensign in 1744, rising to the rank of Capt. in the 16th Regt. of Foot in 1744. He was Grand Master of the Freemasons in Scotland 1759– 61, and later a Lord of Police in Scotland (1773–82) and Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1783–1801) (Comp. Peer. vii. 622; Scots Peer. vi. 115–16). Williamson, p. 44, stating the position in 1773/74, gives

his Edinburgh residence as being in Nicolson Street. 3. George Frazer (or Fraser). 4. George Ramsay (d. 1787), 8th Earl of Dalhousie, advocate (admitted 21 Dec. 1757), appointed sheriff-depute of Forfarshire 1763, later one of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland (1774–87), a Lord of Police in Scotland (1775–82) and Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1777–82) (Fac. Adv., p. 176; Scots Peer. iii. 103). 5. Jean (Hamilton) (d. 1809), Countess of Crawford. She was the eldest daughter of Robert Hamilton of Bourtreehill in Ayrshire and Jean Mitchell, widow of a planter in Jamaica, whom he married soon after arrival there in 1734, which marriage brought him profitable plantations. Jean was born there (c. 1735/36), as were three younger sisters (). She had married George Lindsay (1728/29–1781), 17th Earl of Crawford, on 26 Dec. 1755, but the

211

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 211

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7 january 1768 marriage was unhappy and they separated after having five children (the last of whom was born in 1760) (Scots Peer. iii. 40–41; Comp. Peer. iii. 522). 6. Margaret Montgomerie, JB’s future wife. She and the Countess of Crawford would become close, and after JB succeeded as Laird, one of her most treasured friends in Ayrshire. 7. John Fraser (or Frazer) (d. 1795) of Borlum, W.S. (admitted 29 June 1752) (W.S. Register, p. 111). On 6 Jan., JB had received instructions from Fraser to attend a consultation in the case of Sir Alexander Grant of Dalvey v. Lt.-Col. Hector Munro (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, p. 397). Sir Alexander Grant (d. 1772) of Dalvey, Elginshire, was a prosperous merchant with interests in the West Indies,

America, Africa and India. He was M.P. for the Inverness Burghs 1761–68, but was defeated at the 1768 general election by Hector Munro (1726–1805) of Novar, Ross-shire. Munro, who had gained distinction as a Maj. in command of a Highland regiment, winning the battle of Buxar in Bengal against the Indian Confederation in 1764, returned to Britain immensely wealthy. He would hold his seat for the Inverness Burghs until 1802. He was later knighted, appointed commander-in-chief Madras (1777), promoted to Maj.-Gen. (1782), and appointed Col. of the 42nd Regt. of Foot, the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) (1787) (Namier and Brooke, ii. 528, iii. 180–81; Army List, 1787, p. 4 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/37)).

Friday 8 January In all day. Felt myself now quite free of fancies. Was amazed to find how much happiness & misery is ideal.1 Past the evening at Mr. Moncrieffe’s2 with the Chief Baron[,]3 Miss Ords4 &c[.] [F]elt myself now quite indifferent about making a figure in company. Am I grown dull? or is it a calm confidence in a fixed reputation? 1. That is, imaginary. 2. David Stewart Moncrieffe. 3. The Right Hon. Robert Ord, Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland. 4. Robert Ord and his wife, Mary Darnell (d. 1749) (Ancestry (burial record Petersham, Surrey)), had five daughters (Oxford DNB), four of whom were at this time unmarried: Alice (1745–1826 (IRBCR, p. 46)), who in 1773 would marry

John Mackenzie of Dolphinton (for whom, see p. 216 n. 3) (Fac. Adv., p. 136); Elizabeth (c. 1742–1820 (IRBCR, p. 46)), who in 1793 would become the second wife of Robert McQueen, Lord Braxfield (Fac. Adv., pp. 136 and 142); Isabella, who in 1777 (OPRBM) would marry (as his second wife) Robert Hunter of Thurston (Burke’s Landed Gentry, 6th ed., i. 837); and Margaret (died unmarried in 1806 (Scots Mag. Mar. 1806, lxviii. 239; IRBCR, p. 46)).

Saturday 9 January Busy with Election Law. Jo. Chalmer1 shewed me an old opinion of Duncan Forbes,2 & reflected how curious it was that the opinion remained while the man was no more. A hint such as this brings to my mind all that past, though it would be barren to any body but myself. At home all day consulting & writing law papers, till 6.3 Went & saw the Suspicious Husband & Citizen;4 had my London 212

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 212

27/02/23 6:14 PM

9 january 1768 ideas revived. Went home with Mr. Ross5 & supt & drank a cheerful glass. He gave me all the history of his marriage.6 He put me into my old romantick frame. I wished again for adventures, for proofs of my own address, & of the generosity of charming women. I was for breaking loose7 from Scots marriage. But my elegant heiress and the old family of Auchinleck brought me back again. 1. John Muir Chalmer. Chalmer was JB’s instructing agent in several causes (see Consultation Book; LPJB 1, pp. 370, 373 and 375; LPJB 2, pp. 396, 398, 399, 402, 403 and 406). 2. Duncan Forbes (1685–1747) of Culloden, admitted advocate 26 July 1709, appointed Depute Lord Advocate 12 Mar. 1716, M.P. Ayr Burghs 1721–22, Inverness Burghs 1722–37, appointed Lord Advocate 29 May 1725, Lord President of the Court of Session 21 June 1737. He was highly esteemed as advocate and judge (College of Justice, pp. 508–12; Sedgwick, ii. 43). 3. ‘The practice of holding consultations at an advocate’s house rather than at a tavern was only just developing. According to Somerville, James Ferguson [1700–77] of Pitfour (prior to being elevated to the bench as Lord Pitfour on 14 June 1764) was “the first Scottish lawyer who made a point of being consulted in his own private lodgings” (Somerville, p. 374)’ (BEJ, p. 63 n. 10). 4. The Suspicious Husband, a comedy by Benjamin Hoadly (1706–57), first performed at Covent Garden in 1747 and on many subsequent occasions (‘a comedy of lovers, muddles, escapes, ladders, and bedrooms, with a happy ending’ (Oxford DNB)). The character of the young law student Ranger from this play was one of the young JB’s particular favourites (see Corr. 9, pp. 80 and 83 n. 36, 106 and 109 n. 30, 142 and n. 13; Corr. 10, pp. 81 and 82–83 n. 5). The Citizen, a successful twoact farce by Arthur Murphy (1727–1805) which was first acted in the summer season at Drury Lane in July 1761 and first published in 1763 (Lond. Stage, IV. ii. 874; Oxford DNB). 5. ‘David Ross (1728–90), a longtime actor in Dublin and London, had

just become the patentee of the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh. His first two years saw the building of the new Theatre Royal, as the Canongate Theatre was now styled, and the granting of a royal patent on 2 Sept. 1767. The theatre opened on 9 Dec. 1767 with a Prologue written by JB and spoken by Ross, thus ushering in the first legal performance of a play in Scotland. Ross remained a controversial figure; he was resented by the theatre-going public when it became known that he had been hired without their approval, and his first season was a failure, at least partly because he lacked the capital to hire a good company. Disheartened and without funds, he returned to Covent Garden to resume his acting career, leasing the Theatre Royal to Samuel Foote for the 1770–71 season. For a closer look at the Edinburgh theatre of the period, see [Corr. 4], pp. 25–26, nn. 5–6; 31–32, nn. 6–9; 63–64, nn. 9–10 and the works cited there’ (Corr. 7, p. 2 n. 13). JB would retain warm feelings for Ross, and would renew acquaintance with him in 1783. In Nov. 1784, he would discuss Ross’s distressed state (at a time when Ross ‘had been living in extreme poverty, ruined by extravagance and a broken leg’) with Ross’s nephew, Walter Ross (1738–89), W.S. (admitted 25 June 1764 (W.S. Register, p. 275)), and write him a kindly letter (Journ. 12 Nov. 1784, Applause, p. 263 and n. 3). JB would meet him again, when Ross was in failing health, in London in 1790, and on Ross’s death on 14 Sept. that year, ‘made the [funeral] arrangements, invited whatever friends of Ross’s he could think of, served as chief mourner, probably wrote the obituary in the Gentleman’s Magazine, and advanced £15. 3s. 3d. to cover the costs of the funeral’ (Journ. 29 May, 29 Aug., 14–15

213

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 213

27/02/23 6:14 PM

9 january 1768 Sept., 1790, Great Biographer, p. 55 and n. 5, 105–06 and 106 n. 2, 109 and n. 9). On 15 Sept. 1790, JB would write from London to WJT that ‘my old friend, Ross, the player died suddenly yesterday morning. I was sent for as his most particular friend in town, and have been so busy in arranging his funeral, at which I am to be chief mourner, that I have left myself very little time, only about ten minutes. Poor Ross. He was an unfortunate man in some respects. But he was a true bon vivant, a most social man, and never was without good eating and drinking, and hearty companions’ (Letters JB, ii. 401). 6. ‘It was probably in the late 1750s that Ross married a noted “lady of the town”, Frances (Fanny) Murray (1729– 1778), possibly the daughter of the musician Thomas Rudman. This was said to have been at the instance of Lord Spencer [John Spencer (1734–83), 1st Earl Spen-

cer], whose father [The Hon. John Spencer (1708–46) (Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed., p. 2202)] had “debauched” her and who, to make amends, made Ross an allowance of £200 a year for marrying her’ (Oxford DNB). When JB met Ross at his London lodgings in 1790, an unidentified ‘lowbred, obliging girl whom he called Mrs. Ross dined with us’ (Journ. 29 Aug. 1790, Great Biographer, p. 106). JB ‘had known Ross’s first wife, Fanny Murray . . . She was a famous courtesan before her marriage but apparently a good wife to Ross’ (Great Biographer, p. 106 n. 4). Ross’s obituary in the Gent. Mag. noted that ‘whatever her former indiscretions . . . [she] conducted herself as a wife with exemplary prudence and discretion’ (Oxford DNB). For a full account, see Barbara White, Queen of the Courtesans: Fanny Murray, 2014. 7. MS. ‘loose’ interlined; word below deleted. The deleted word is perhaps ‘loss’.

Sunday 10 January In forenoon writing to Zelide1 &c. Church afternoon. Heard Heiress was to have a Knight.2 Was not so much shocked as before. I did not indeed fully believe it. Visited Sally’s mother. Was tired of her. 1. Isabella Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken (1740–1805), familiarly known as Belle de Zuylen, and usually referred to by JB as Zélide, the pseudonym she adopted for her writing at this time. She would later be famous as the author Madame de Charrière. (For a full biography, see Courtney.) JB had thought of her as among his matrimonial possibilities since their first meeting in Utrecht in Oct. 1763 (Mem. 31 Oct. 1763; Holland, Heinemann pp. 285–89, McGraw-Hill pp. 293–97). ‘Although JB was strongly attracted to [Belle de Zuylen], he had equally strong reservations about her. He had written to [JJ] on 11 May 1765 ([Corr. 1], p. 166 and n. 12) that she was “well looked and has £8000”, but was also “an universal Genius

and rather too learned”, and this ambivalence is reflected in their correspondence’ (Corr. 5, p. 47 n. 7). Writing to WJT in Mar. 1767, JB had mentioned that ‘Zelide has been in London this winter. I never hear from her. She is a strange Creature. Sir John Pringle [for whom, see pp. 270–71 n. 3] attended her as a Physician. He wrote to my Father “She has too much vivacity. She talks of your Son without either resentment or attachment” . . . I am well rid of her’ (To WJT, 1 Feb.–8 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 167). JB’s letter of 10 Jan. has not been recovered, but it is known from her response of 16 Feb. that his letter had contained ‘an outright profession of love’ while ‘still leaving room for retreat’ (Holland, Heinemann p. 356 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 367 n. 7). Her letter (in

214

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 214

27/02/23 6:14 PM

11 january 1768 French) is set out in Corr. 7, pp. 20–22, and a translation is set out in Holland, Heinemann pp. 357–59, McGraw-Hill pp. 367–70. She replies: ‘The fact is you do not love conclusions; you love problems which can never be solved. The debate you have been conducting for so long concerning our fate if we were married is the proof of this taste of yours . . . Allow me to remark that you certainly take your time for everything. You waited to fall in love with me until you were in the island of Corsica; and to tell me so, you waited until you were in love with another woman and had spoken to her of marriage. That, I repeat, that is certainly to take one’s time . . . I read your belated endearments with pleasure, with a smile. Well! So you once loved me! I wish you all the more success and happiness in the choice your heart makes at present.’ Lord Auchinleck disapproved of Belle as a potential wife for JB, describing her to him in a letter of 30 Jan. 1766 as ‘a foreigner, a bel esprit and one who even in your own opinion has not solidity enough for this country’ (Holland, Heinemann p. 345, McGraw-Hill p. 355). In 1771 she would marry CharlesEmmanuel de Charrière (1735–1808), who had been private tutor to her brothers, and reside thereafter at Colombier in Switzerland. For her writings, see Isabelle de Charrière/Belle de Zuylen, Œuvres complètes, 10 vols., ed. Jean-Daniel Candaux and others, 1979–84. For analyses of the relationship between JB and Belle, see Irma S. Lustig, ‘Boswell and Zélide’, in Isabelle de Charrière, Belle de Zuylen, ed. Beatrice Fink; Eighteenth Century Life, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1989, pp.

10–15; and Gordon Turnbull, ‘Boswell and Belle de Zuylen: Language and Legislation’, in Isabelle de Charrière, ed. Vincent Giroud and Janet Whatley, The Yale University Library Gazette, Occasional Supplement 6 (New Haven, CT: Beinecke Library, Dec. 2004), pp. 87–100. 2. ‘The “Knight” was Sir Alexander Gilmour (c. 1737–92) of Craigmillar, Bt., M.P. for Edinburghshire from 1762 to 1774 and clerk comptroller for the Board of Green Cloth (Namier and Brooke, ii. 501–03). JB wrote to [WJT] on 8 Feb. that Sir Alexander had £1,600 a year of estate and was paid £1,000 a year for his clerkship: “in short a noble match, though a man of expence [&] obliged to lead a London life” [Corr. 6, p. 222]. It is unclear whether Catherine Blair ever accepted Sir Alexander’s proposal, for JB later reported that “when terms came to be considered neither answered the expectations which they had formed of each other’s circumstances; and so the match was broken off” (To [WJT], 9 Dec.[, Corr. 6, p. 244])’ (Corr. 7, p. 33 n. 11). JB would write to Sir Alexander Dick on 24 Sept., after conversing with her on a visit to her home, that she herself confirmed that the match would not happen: ‘I was lately at Adamtown, and had a long walk with Heiress Kate by the side of her wood. She told me that the knight Sir Sawney was never to rule her territories’ (Corr. 7, p. 111). ‘Sir Sawney’ was JB’s nickname for Sir Alexander Gilmour. For the origin of the nickname, ‘A Crambo Song on losing My Mistress’, see To WJT, 8 Feb. 1768, Corr. 6, p. 223.

Monday 11 January Busy with law. Lord Chief Baron[,] Mr. Moncrieffe[,] Lord Strichen1 &c dined. 1. Alexander Fraser (d. 1775), Lord Strichen, ‘admitted advocate 23 June 1722, appointed Lord of Session 5 June 1730, Lord Commissioner of Justiciary 11 June

1735 (but resigned seat as Justiciary judge on appointment as General of the Mint in 1764)’ (LPJB 1, p. 392; see also College of Justice, pp. 502–03).

215

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 215

27/02/23 6:14 PM

12 january 1768

Tuesday 12 January Went in coach with my father, visited Mr. James Ker,1 felt myself quite established; dined Lady Alva’s2 with Lord Chief Baron, Miss Ords, & Mr. John Mckenzie.3 Was well, but found I was ignorant, & had no turn for the common afairs of life. 1. James Ker (or Kerr) (c. 1711–81 (OPRDB)), Joint Keeper of the Records from 1746 to 1773. Possibly the James Kerr, writer, who was admitted Burgess and Guild Brother of Edinburgh 12 Dec. 1753 (REBGB, 1701–1760, p. 112). Williamson, p. 42, stating the position in 1773/74, gives Ker’s residence as being in Lauriston (a district to the south of Edinburgh’s old city wall). This may have been Lauriston House, ‘a large mansion, with a lodge and circular carriage approach’ (Cassell’s Edinburgh, ii. 356). On 16 Aug. 1773, when JB took SJ to the Laigh Parliament House in Edinburgh, where the records of Scotland were held, and ‘began to indulge old Scottish sentiments and to express a warm regret that by our Union with England, we were no more – our independent kingdom

was lost’, Ker (referred to by JB as ‘worthy’) would remark: ‘Half our nation was bribed by English money’ (Journ. 16 Aug. 1773, Hebrides, pp. 23–24). 2. Elizabeth (Harestanes) (d. 1806), widow of Charles Erskine, Lord Tinwald (for whom, see p. 327 n. 26). Lord Tinwald purchased the family estate of Alva (in Stirlingshire) (Comp. Bar. iv. 251, note a), and his widow, who had married him as his second wife in 1753 (Fac. Adv., p. 66), was styled Lady Alva. 3. John Mackenzie (1748–88) of Dolphinton, who would be admitted advocate on 25 June 1771 and would be appointed a judge of the commissary court in 1776 (Fac. Adv., p. 136). Perhaps his future wife, Alice, was among the ‘Miss Ords’ at this dinner (for the Miss Ords, see p. 212 n. 4).

Wednesday 13 January Dined Mrs. Boswell’s of Balmuto;1 found I had formed a habit there of constant jocularity, in so much that I never said one serious word. This must be corrected; they are good people. Relations should be regarded. In the immense multiplicity of human beings the more attachments we can form, the better.2 Do as we please, they are all few enough. Saw Martin’s portraits.3 Drank tea at Mr. Kincaid[’]s.4 Mrs. Kincaid not in;5 just the father & son & his governour. I appeared a formed man of learning. 1. Margaret (Henderson) Boswell, widow of John Boswell of Balmuto. She was the mother of Claud Boswell of Balmuto, and an aunt of Lord Auchinleck (Ominous Years, Chart III, p. 376). 2. JB’s thought here somewhat resembles the motto for his essay for the Lond. Mag. as ‘The Hypochondriack’ referred to on pp. 62–63 n. 72.

3. David Martin (1737–97), portrait painter and engraver, who had studied under Allan Ramsay. He painted in excess of 300 portraits, including paintings of members of the Scottish Enlightenment such as David Hume (Oxford DNB). The portraits which JB saw were presumably on public display, for Lt. John Boswell’s diary entry for 14 July 1768 records that on

216

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 216

27/02/23 6:14 PM

14 january 1768 that day he ‘went along . . . and saw one Mr. Martin a celebrated Painter’s Pictures’ (Lt. John Boswell’s Journals (Yale MS. C 404: 2–3)). 4. Alexander Kincaid (1710–77), bookseller and printer, admitted burgess and guild brother of Edinburgh 20 Mar. 1734, elected to the town council 1734, 1746–48 and 1750–51, appointed His Majesty’s Printer and Stationer for Scotland 1749, carried on business in partnership with Alexander Donaldson (for whom, see p. 314 n. 1) from 1751 to 1758, entered into partnership with John Bell in 1758, later elected Lord Provost 1776–77 (Oxford DNB; LPE, p. 77; REBGB, 1701–1760, p. 113). His firm published major works of the Scottish Enlightenment, such as Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Lord Kames’s Elements of Criticism (1762), Thomas Reid’s Inquiry into the Human Mind (1764) and Adam Ferguson’s Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767). Williamson, p. 42, stating the position in 1773/74, gives his residence as being in the Cowgate, ‘opposite the foot of the old fish-market’. In 1771, he would form a partnership with William Creech (1745– 1815), who took over the business in 1773 and would become a renowned bookseller in Edinburgh (Oxford DNB). JB would note Kincaid’s sudden death on 21 Jan. 1777, and would report attending the funeral procession, from the Tron Church to the Greyfriars Churchyard (Journ. 22, 28 Jan. 1777, Extremes, pp. 79, 82). 5. Kincaid’s wife, whom he married in 1751, was Caroline Kerr (d. 1774), sister of Henrietta Anne Kerr (for whom, see p. 88 n. 2) and Jean Janet Kerr (for whom, see p. 231 n. 1). ‘She was a woman of sufficient culture and intellect to maintain a

separate library and to merit an obituary in the London Chronicle in August 1774’ (Oxford DNB). As mentioned in the note on her sister Henrietta, she and JB were distantly related, each being ‘a greatgrandchild of the second Earl of Kincardine’ (Defence, Heinemann p. 286 n. 7, McGraw-Hill p. 274 n. 3), and JB would think of her and her sisters as family. He would intend to attend her funeral on 19 Aug. 1774, but owing to the neglect of the chairman he did not receive the ‘burial letters’, and so he was not present at the burial. Kincaid would arrange to have ‘a letter of apology’ sent, and JB records that a ‘visit [to Kincaid] which I now paid was a proper piece of attention to a very worthy gentlemanly man who has shown the greatest regard to all his wife’s relations . . . I resolved to continue that friendship with Mr. Kincaid which had always subsisted between our family and him, though we meet seldom’ (Journal 19 Aug. 1774, Defence, Heinemann p. 286, McGraw-Hill p. 274).   Her son, also Alexander (1752 (OPRBB)–77), was at this time fifteen years old. His ‘governour’ (tutor), Alexander Adam (1741–1809), later this year would become the rector of the Edinburgh High School, serving with great distinction until 1799 (Oxford DNB). Alexander would succeed his father as His Majesty’s Printer and Stationer for Scotland, but would die just eleven months later, in Dec. 1777 (The Epitaphs and Monumental Inscriptions in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh, collected by James Brown, Edinburgh, 1867, p. 321). JB would note on 5 Dec. 1777, ‘Poor young Kincaid died. I had called on him the day before,’ and on 11 Dec., ‘Was at Alexander Kincaid’s burial’ (Extremes, pp. 198–99).

Thursday 14 January Was entertained to find myself again in the Parliament house in all the hurry of business. Mr. Kincaid & his family dined with us. 217

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 217

27/02/23 6:14 PM

15 january 1768

Friday 15 January Breakfasted with Mr. William Alexander1 — genteel people. I thought myself among strangers & not in Edinburgh. Was busy with Election Causes;2 found the law fatigue me greatly, & from my indolent & anxious temper I was really harassed with it. 1. William Alexander (1729–1819), merchant, second son of the former Lord Provost of Edinburgh, William Alexander (c. 1690–1761), and his wife, Marione (or Mariane) Louisa de la Croix (c. 1695–1773), of a French Huguenot family (Rogers, ii. 33–34; LPE, p. 71; Scots Mag. July 1761, xxiii. 391; Namier and Brooke, ii. 16; OPRDB). (It is perhaps this French Huguenot connection that leads JB to feel himself ‘among strangers & not in Edinburgh’.) Alexander’s first wife, Christian Aitchison (d. 1773 (Scots. Mag. Oct. 1773, xxxv. 559)), whom he married in 1754 (OPRBM), was the ‘only daughter of John Aitchison of Rochsolach and Airdrie, in the county of Lanark’. The marriage produced ‘two sons and six daughters’ (Rogers, ii. 34).   The trading and banking firm William Alexander and Sons, with interests in Grenada and the West Indies, would be among the concerns which floundered as a result of the failure of Alexander Fordyce’s bank (for which, see p. 125 n. 5), which caused ‘a general collapse of credit’. The Alexanders’ firm was in ‘imminent danger’, but was assisted by the wealthy M.P. Thomas Walpole (1727–1803), enabling them to ‘survive for the time being’. But Walpole was ‘forced to pledge certain estates in Grenada and Tobago to the Bank of England as security. In 1774, [the Alexanders] defaulted, and the rest of Walpole’s life was spent in dealing with the consequences.’ When the Alexanders defaulted, ‘Walpole began an action against them to gain possession of the estates in Grenada and Tobago. This dragged on in Chancery until 1779, in which year the French captured Tobago. The Alexanders then fled to France, claiming French citizenship’

(Namier and Brooke, iii. 598–601, s.v. Thomas Walpole).   William Alexander’s second wife was Agatha de la Porte, ‘belonging to an ancient family at Montpellier’ (Rogers, ii. 34). This marriage produced four sons and a daughter (ibid., p. 35).   Thomas Walpole ‘was forced to begin actions in the French courts to establish his claim . . . In July 1780 he went to Paris to take direct charge of his affairs . . . [T]he cause against the Alexanders was decided in his favour’ (Namier and Brooke, iii. 601, s.v. Thomas Walpole). In 1783, William Alexander and family would leave France for the United States, where they would remain. His second son, Robert Alexander (1767–1841), followed in 1786. Till 1811, William Alexander ‘resided at Staunton in Virginia, when he removed to Kentucky’, where Robert Alexander had resided since 1791, and ‘where he died in 1819, at the age of ninety’ (Rogers, ii. 34, 36).   Some eight years after the date of this breakfast, JB, at Oxford (to which city he had travelled with SJ), would report meeting the eldest child of the first marriage, William (later Sir William) Alexander (1755–1842), to whom he refers as ‘the merchant’s son’, who was then a student there. He had matriculated at Christ Church 13 Dec. 1773, aged eighteen (Alum. Oxon. i. 15). When JB went to call on his acquaintance Professor John Smith (for whom, see p. 285 n. 2), he was ‘somewhat shocked to find Smith’ with young Alexander, ‘drinking tea after a debauch in wine at a meeting of Scotchmen in Oxford’ (Journ. 20 Mar. 1776, Ominous Years, p. 282). Alexander would be called to the Bar (Middle Temple) in 1782, nominated King’s Counsel in 1800, become

218

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 218

27/02/23 6:14 PM

15 january 1768 a Master of Chancery in 1809, and would serve as Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer from 1824 (when he would be sworn to the Privy Council, and knighted) to 1831. ‘As an equity and real property lawyer, he enjoyed professional celebrity.’ In 1837, on the death of a second cousin, he succeeded ‘to the estate of Cloverhill or Cowden, in the parish of New Kilpatrick, Dumbartonshire’ (Rogers, ii. 35–36). 2. On this day, JB received instructions to draft Replies in three causes concerned with election law. One was the case of David Henderson of Stempster v. Sir John Sinclair of Mey, which was in connection with the Roll of Freeholders for the county of Caithness, and the other two were cases in connection with the Roll of Freeholders of Forfarshire (for which, see pp. 205–07 n. 2): namely, George Skene of Skene and William Milne of Bonnytown v. David Wallace and Walter Ogilvie of Clova and William Douglas of Bridgetown v. James Coutts of Hallgreen (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, p. 397).   David Henderson of Stempster (an estate in Bower parish, Caithness), for whom JB acted, averred in the Petition and Complaint at his instance that at the meeting of the Michaelmas head court for the county of Caithness on 30 Sept. 1767, notwithstanding the various titles to land produced by him, the freeholders had wrongly refused to admit him to the Roll of Freeholders for the county. Answers were lodged on behalf of Sir John Sinclair (d. 1774) of Mey (a hamlet in Canisbay parish, Caithness (OGS)), Bt. JB’s Replies to the Answers open with the following paragraph: ‘The Answers . . . exhibit a glaring Picture of the Effects of that most extraordinary political Infatuation which at present prevails, when a Man may intrude himself into a County where he has neither Property nor interest, and, by wonderful Finesse, may, to promote his own particular Schemes, set the People of the County by the Ears, and make them enter into keen Disputes with their Neighbours, for which they have not the least Shadow of Pretence, and which can

serve no other Purpose but to promote the Jobs [i.e. private interests] of an Interloper’ (page 1 of the printed Replies, dated 18 Jan. 1768 and extending to ten pages (Signet Library 683:42), transcribed in LPJB 2, pp. 12–20, at p. 12). (For an account of malpractices in the Scottish electoral system in the eighteenth century, see Ferguson, pp. 271–87.) JB goes on to deny in detail the allegations of Sir John Sinclair with regard to Henderson’s titles and concludes: ‘The Complainer therefore does humbly hope, that your Lordships will see good Cause, to ordain him to be added to the Roll . . . and, in respect that the Answers to his Petition and Complaint are so destitute of Fact, and contain insinuations, as void of Foundation, as they are injurious, it is further hoped, that your Lordships will testify your Displeasure in such Manner as you shall think they deserve’ (page 10 of the Replies (supra); LPJB 2, pp. 19–20). By interlocutor dated 2 Feb. 1768, the Inner House of the Court of Session would dismiss Henderson’s Petition and Complaint, and on 6 Feb. JB would be instructed to draft a reclaiming petition (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, p. 398). The printed reclaiming petition, dated 11 Feb. 1768 and extending to sixteen pages of very detailed averments (Houghton Library EC75. B6578c. 1768c), is transcribed in LPJB 2, pp. 20–34. However, by interlocutor dated 11 Feb. 1768, the Inner House would adhere to their former interlocutor and refused the desire of the petition (Court of Session process (NRS CS231/11/1/53); LPJB 2, p. 35).   In the case of George Skene of Skene and William Milne of Bonnytown v. David Wallace, Skene and Milne, for whom JB acted, averred in their Petition and Complaint that Wallace, a merchant in Aberdeen, had been wrongly admitted to the Roll of Freeholders of Forfarshire, one of the grounds of objection being that Wallace’s vote was a nominal and fictitious one made by the Earl of Panmure on the basis of a conveyance made without any intention of conveying a real and beneficial estate

219

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 219

27/02/23 6:14 PM

15 january 1768 (Court of Session Extracted Processes, Durie’s Office, 9 Mar. 1768 (NRS CS25, box 894)). In his Replies to the Answers for Wallace, JB argued, among other things, that, at the meeting of the freeholders, Wallace had taken the obligatory statutory oath of possession ‘with an addition of his own, importing that he was in possession in a manner by no means according to the Titles on which he Claimed’ and that Wallace was therefore to be considered ‘as if he had refused the Oath altogether’ (page 8 of Replies, dated 19 Jan. 1768 and extending to eleven pages in the handwriting of a clerk (ibid.)). After further procedure, in which JB was not involved, the Inner House of the Court of Session would pronounce an interlocutor on 9 Mar. 1768 finding that the estate in respect of which Wallace was enrolled in the Roll of Freeholders was ‘not a real estate in his person for his own use and benefit but that his right and titles thereto are nominal and fictitious’ and therefore ordained that his name be expunged from the Roll (ibid.; Morison’s Dictionary, 8758). However, Wallace would appeal to the House of Lords, and on 2 Dec. 1768 the Lords would order that the Court of Session’s interlocutor be reversed and that Wallace be replaced upon the Roll of Freeholders (JHL 2 Dec. 1768, xxxii. 190). JB was not involved in the appeal to the House of Lords.   In the case of Walter Ogilvie of Clova and William Douglas of Bridgetown v. James Coutts of Hallgreen, JB acted for Ogilvie (or Ogilvy) (1733–1819) of Clova (in north Forfarshire (OGS, i. 267)), advocate

(admitted 22 Feb. 1757), titular 5th Earl of Airlie (Scots Peer. i. 129; Fac. Adv., p. 166), and Douglas (1745–1814), 2nd of Brigton (or Bridgetown), an estate in Forfarshire (). Shortly after this time, James Coutts (d. 1798) would sell Hallgreen (an estate near Bervie in Kincardineshire) to Thomas Lyon (Low, pp. 16–19; Jervise, i. 27). Ogilvie and Douglas averred in their Petition and Complaint that Coutts had been wrongly admitted to the Roll of Freeholders of Forfarshire, one of the grounds of objection being that when Coutts took the oath of possession he added certain words of his own which the law did not authorize and therefore he should be held as not having taken that oath (Court of Session Extracted Processes, Durie’s Office, 9 Mar. 1768 (NRS CS25, box 894)). In his Replies to the Answers for Coutts, JB argued, among other things, that Coutts, having taken the oath of possession ‘with an addition of his own importing that he was in possession in a manner by no means according to the titles on which he claimed’, should be considered as having refused to take the oath altogether (pages 9–10 of Replies, dated 19 Jan. 1768 and extending to twelve pages in the handwriting of a clerk (ibid.)). After further procedure, not involving JB, the Inner House of the Court of Session would pronounce an interlocutor on 6 Feb. 1768 finding that the freeholders had done wrong in admitting Coutts to the Roll and therefore granted warrant to expunge him from the Roll (ibid.).

Saturday 16 January This morning I was amazed when I thought of Mr. Lockhart1 who is all the forenoon in the parliament house & is never hurried or fretted, & yet goes through such multitudes of causes.2 I told him he was just a Brownie in business.3 In a few hours the work of a dozen of men is performed by him. He never talks of himself, or complains any how. He said he wondered how the story of Brownies came ever to be believed. I never before saw him aim at Philosophy. It is indeed odd how the existence of a Being who actually performed work as a Brownie was said to 220

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 220

27/02/23 6:14 PM

16 january 1768 do, came to be believed; for it is not like imagining one sees a vision or hears a noise. Miss Montgomerie & Doctour Boswell & I were carried out by Worthy Sir Alexr. Dick in his coach to Prestonfield. We were very happy. I dont believe there ever existed a man more continually amiable than Sir Alexr.4 Came home in his coach. Had a consultation on the forfar politicks.5 In the forenoon as we went along in the coach, the Earl of Eglintoune6 was at the cross.7 I jumped out & he & I embraced most cordially. I had a strange pleasure in shewing my intimacy with his Lordship, before the citisens of Edinburgh. It is fine to be sensible of all one’s various sentiments & to analyse them. After my consultation, I went to Fortune’s8 & supt with Lord Eglintoune, Lord Galloway[,]9 Mathew Henderson & several more. I saw a genteel profligate society who live like a distinct nation in Edinburgh having constant recruits going & coming. I was ill of a venereal disorder, but10 resolved to make myself easy & eat & drink tho’ not to excess, yet freely. About one Lord Eglintoune & I went up stairs & had a friendly conference. I told him I loved Miss B. much & wished to marry her, if she liked me, & I gave him all our history. He said I was right to be honest with her; that her answers were very clever, & that it was probable she liked me. But he said I did not shew her attention enough — that a woman had a right to be courted, as much as a Husband after marriage had a right to command. That if I insisted on a woman shewing much love for me, I was certain of being taken in by any artful girl who wanted to have a man with a good estate — That I should tell Miss B––– if I have any chance I’ll do all in my power to be agreable. If not, I’ll make myself easy as soon as possible. He said my yorkshire Beauty11 would not do so well — that she would be miserable in this country,12 & he quoted a blunt saying of the highlanders, that a Cow fed in fine lowland parks was unco bonny13; but turned lean and scabbed when she was turned out to the wild hills — Up came Mat. Henderson & swore he believed Sir Alexr. Gilmour was to have the Heiress. My Lord advised me to write to her & know as to this. Such admirable advice14 did I get from a man of great genius who knows the world perfectly. He talked to me of my neutrality in the Ayrshire elections.15 I felt I was wrong. I was now quite free of Hypochondria. Walking home after convoying My Lord to the Bow,16 I met a girl. Like a madman I would try the experiment of cooling myself when ill. What more mischief may it not bring!17 1. Alexander Lockhart, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. 2. Ramsay of Ochtertyre remarked of Lockhart: ‘Few men had a quicker conception or a clearer head . . . In every cause of consequence people flocked to hear him plead . . . [H]e had vast business in the Court of Session’ (Ramsay, i. 132–33). 3. A brownie, in Scottish superstition, is a ‘house spirit’ (known in England as ‘Robin Goodfellow’). ‘At night he

is supposed to busy himself in doing little jobs for the family over which he presides’ (Brewer). 4. As noted at p. 96 n. 3, JB described Sir Alexander Dick as ‘much of an Italian in pleasantness of Disposition’. 5. The consultation was presumably in respect of the cases of George Skene of Skene and William Milne of Bonnytown v. David Wallace and Walter Ogilvie of Clova and William Douglas of Bridgetown v. James

221

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 221

27/02/23 6:14 PM

16 january 1768 Coutts of Hallgreen (for which cases, see pp. 219–20 n. 2 above). 6. JB’s friend and Ayrshire neighbour Alexander Montgomerie (1723–69), 10th Earl of Eglinton, who had introduced JB to ‘the pleasures of elegant society’ during JB’s first visit to London in 1760 (Journ. 9 Nov. 1778, Laird, p. 43). ‘Eglinton was appointed Lord of the Bedchamber to George III in 1760 and was elected one of the sixteen Scottish representative peers in 1761 and 1768. His death in 1769 [would occur] after being fatally shot on his own land by an excise officer named Mungo Campbell whom Eglinton had challenged on suspicion of poaching’ (LPJB 1, p. 82 n. 285; see also Scots Peer. iii. 458–59). 7. ‘The Market Cross (or “Mercat Cross”) of Edinburgh (an “octagonal structure, about sixteen feet in diameter and fifteen feet high, surmounted by a stone column about twenty feet high with a Gothic capital, on top of which was a unicorn”), which had stood in the High Street a short distance to the east of the Church of St Giles, and had been “the city’s principal meeting place for business and gossip”, was “demolished in 1756 to make more room in the street for traffic”, but “the spot where the Cross had stood continued to be the central meeting place of the city and, indeed, was still known as ‘the Cross’” (BEJ, p. 6)’ (LPJB 2, p. 7 n. 28). 8. Fortune’s Tavern, a popular establishment ‘in what came to be called Old Stamp Office Close, off the north side of the High Street opposite the City Guardhouse’ (BEJ, p. 38). ‘Fortune’s had a setting worthy of its renown, its handsome pillared doorway leading into what formerly had been [a] town mansion’ (Stuart, p. 55). The building had been the town mansion of Alexander Montgomerie (c. 1660–1729), 9th Earl of Eglinton, and the residence of his exceptionally attractive wife, Susanna (Kennedy) (c. 1690–1780), who was said to have been ‘the most beautiful woman of her time, of unusually tall stature, yet perfect both as to figure and carriage, and with

a face of exquisite beauty’ (Scots Peer. iii. 456; see also Stuart, p. 55). JB would write of her: ‘Her figure was majestic, her manners high-bred, her reading extensive, and her conversation elegant’ (Journ. 1 Nov. 1773, Hebrides, p. 368). 9. Alexander Stewart (c. 1694–1773), 6th Earl of Galloway (Scots Peer. iv. 164–65). 10. MS. ‘I was ill of a venereal disorder, but’ scored off with a modern pen. The word ‘venereal’, which is particularly difficult to decipher, is as transcribed in BP, vii. 141. 11. Elizabeth Diana Bosville (1748– 89), eldest daughter of Godfrey Bosville (1717–84) of Gunthwaite, near Wakefield in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and Diana (Wentworth) Bosville (1722–95) (Corr. 5, p. 38 nn. 1, 3). JB had thought of her as a marital possibility before he had actually met her, at least as early as Oct. 1764, when he noted her name in a memorandum written while he was in Kassel (Journ. 1, pp. 186 and 187 n. 5). He first met her after returning from his continental travels on 15 Feb. 1766, having been asked to dinner at the family’s London home in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, when he thought her ‘vastly pretty: black hair, charming complexion, quite modest’ (Mem. 16 Feb. 1766, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 300, McGraw-Hill p. 284). He had later described her to WJT as ‘a charming young Lady . . . and . . . extremely sensible. She never dances. That I should have insisted for no man shall ever pull about my Wife. She loves reading and walking, and does not tire of six months in the Country’ (To WJT, 17 May 1766, Corr. 6, p. 149). Although JB thought of her as a matrimonial possibility, he had told WJT in Mar. 1767 that he was afraid that she ‘would be too fine for this northern air’ (To WJT, 1 Feb.–8 Mar. 1767, Corr. 6, p. 167). She, for her part, ‘would remain unaware of or be unimpressed by his interest’ (Journ. 1, p. 187 n. 5). 12. On 25 Mar. (see entry for that date) JB, again dining at Bosville’s in London, would report that ‘Miss Bosville was now

222

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 222

27/02/23 6:14 PM

17 january 1768 engaged to’ Sir Alexander Macdonald (c. 1745–95) of Sleat (or Slate), 9th Bt. (later Baron Macdonald of Slate), whom she would marry on 3 May (Comp. Peer. viii. 339; Comp. Bar. ii. 292). Macdonald’s seat was at Armadale in the parish of Sleat on the south coast of the Isle of Skye. When JB and SJ reached the shore of Armadale on their Hebridean tour in 1773, ‘Sir Alexander came down and received us . . . My lady stood at the top of the bank and made a kind of jumping for joy’ (2 Sept. 1773, Hebrides, p. 113). ‘So, despite Lord Eglinton’s opinion of its undesirability, Miss Bosville did marry a Scotsman, and a Highlander at that.’ But ‘Sir Alexander and his wife entertained [JB] and [SJ] on their tour of the Hebrides . . . in so miserly a fashion that [JB] complained of their lack of hospitality in his Tour to the Hebrides, 1785. Sir Alexander became very angry and a duel was barely avoided’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 153 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 143 n. 7). JB on the tour reported several unpleasant remarks made by himself and by SJ about ‘my beauty of a cousin’. ‘Indeed, I was quite disgusted with her nothingness and insipidity. Mr. Johnson said, “This woman would sink a ninety-gun ship. She is so dull—so heavy”’ (4 Sept. 1773, Hebrides, p. 117). 13. MS. ‘bony’. 14. MS. ‘advices’ with ‘s’ deleted. 15. Although JB maintained neutrality with regard to Ayrshire politics in the general election of 1768, he would take an active interest with regard to the politics in that county in the general election of 1774 (see pp. 69–70 n. 2). Eglinton is implying that he would have appreciated JB’s support in the complicated contestations among the Ayrshire peers vying for parliamentary office and political power. In 1759, Eglinton had secured the support of the Earl of Bute

for the candidacy of his brother, Archibald Montgomerie (for whom, see pp. 69–70 n. 2 and p. 319 n. 4), who was returned unopposed for Ayrshire in 1761. It was expected that he would be victorious again this year. But when in late 1767 Eglinton ‘attached himself to the Grenvilles [the political group which included George Grenville] in opposition, voted in the Lords against the court, and was dismissed from his place as lord of the bedchamber’, one of his Ayrshire rivals, Lord Loudoun, ‘concerted plans to “put down Lord Eglintoun’s strength” in Ayrshire’. Loudoun formed an alliance with the Earl of Cassillis, whose brother, David Kennedy, was sent to oppose Montgomerie. In the election, Kennedy was victorious (Namier and Brooke, iii. 4, 157–58; see also Pol. Car. p. 59). 16. The West Bow, ‘a narrow, zig-zagging street sloping steeply down from [the Lawnmarket in] the High Street to the Grassmarket. “No part of Edinburgh was so rich in quaint old houses as . . . the Bow – singular edifices, many of them of vast and unknown antiquity, and all more or less irregular, with stone gables and dovecot gablets, timber-galleries, outshots, and strange projections, the dormer windows, patches and additions made in the succession of centuries, overhanging the narrow and tortuous street . . . Its antique tenements, covered with heraldic carvings and quaint dates, half hidden by sign-boards, or sordid rags drying on poles, its nooks, crooks, trap-doors, and gloomy chambers, abounded with old memories, with heroic stories of ancient martial families, and with grim legends and grandmother’s tales of ghosts and diablerie” [Cassell’s Edinburgh, i. 309]’ (BEJ, p. 7). 17. MS. ‘I met a girl . . . bring!’ scored off with a modern pen.

Sunday 17 January In all forenoon. At dinner my Father was out of humour because I had been so late abroad. I bore with him quite calmly. At 5 met at Mr. McQueen[’]s1 with 223

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 223

27/02/23 6:14 PM

17 january 1768 Messieurs Rae[,]2 Alexr. Murray3 & Armstrong4 as Counsel for Raybould the forger5 as I allow myself to consult on criminal business on sundays.6 Went to bed at nine that I might be up very early next morning. 1. Robert McQueen. At this time, McQueen resided in Covenant Close, off the south side of the High Street (Osborne, p. 41). In 1770, he would move to 13 George Square (BOEC, Vol. 26, p. 142). ‘George Square, then a suburb to the south of the city, was the most fashionable, healthy and elegant area of the city and suburbs until overtaken by the New Town’ (BEJ, p. 111 n. 4). 2. David Rae (1724–1804), advocate (admitted 11 Dec. 1751). ‘[He] soon acquired a considerable practice . . . He is said to have been for many years the foremost advocate in the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, and he was generally held in high esteem. He was to be elevated to the bench, with the judicial title of Lord Eskgrove, on 14 November 1782 following the death of Lord Auchinleck, and was to be appointed a Lord Commissioner of Justiciary on 20 April 1785, and Lord Justice-Clerk on 1 June 1799. However, his reputation after becoming a judge was not good: Cockburn said of him that although he was “a very considerable lawyer” and “cunning in old Scotch law”, the fact was that “a more ludicrous personage could not exist” and never once did he do or say anything which had the slightest claim to be remembered for any intrinsic merit. The value of all his words and actions consisted in their absurdity” [Cockburn, p. 109]’ (BEJ, pp. 560–61. See also Fac. Adv., p. 175; College of Justice, pp. 535–36). 3. Alexander Murray (1736–95), advocate (admitted 7 Mar. 1758). ‘He succeeded his father as Sheriff-Depute of Peeblesshire in 1761 and was appointed one of the Commissaries in Edinburgh in 1765. He was in due course to be appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland (24 May 1775) and from 1780 to 1783 he was Member of Parliament for Peeblesshire. On 6 March 1783 he was appointed Lord of Session and

Lord Commissioner of Justiciary, with the judicial title of Lord Henderland’ (BEJ, p. 562. See also Fac. Adv., p. 159; College of Justice, p. 537). 4. David Armstrong, advocate, later sheriff-depute of Dumfriesshire (for whom, see p. 183 n. 1). 5. John Raybould, referred to in the indictment as ‘late Nailer’ at New Merchiston, Stirlingshire, ‘in the Service of the Carron Company’ (NRS JC26/181), was indicted on the capital charge of counterfeiting fifty notes resembling twenty-shilling notes issued by the partnership known as Sir James Maxwell of Pollock, Baronet, James Ritchie and Company, bankers in Glasgow, and uttering twenty-two of those notes. The Court of Session had found the allegations proved in civil proceedings and had pronounced decreet of reduction on 27 Nov. 1767 (Maclaurin, pp. 468–70). In those days, forgery cases ‘were often brought in the first instance in the Court of Session rather than in the High Court of Justiciary. Hume explains that one reason for this was “the difficult and tedious nature, generally speaking, of the proof of forgery; which is often impossible to be finished, as must be done with every trial by assize in the criminal Court, in the course of a single sitting” (Hume, vol. I, p. 158) . . . If the Court of Session found the accused guilty and considered that it was sufficient to punish him with a sentence short of death they could proceed to do so, but if they considered that the appropriate sentence was death they had to remit the accused to the High Court of Justiciary to undergo a new trial there on indictment (ibid., p. 160)’ (LPJB 2, p. 417 n. 5). Raybould was due to stand trial before the High Court of Justiciary on 18 Jan. 6. JB permits himself this work as allowable within the strict Sabbatarianism

224

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 224

27/02/23 6:14 PM

18 january 1768 carried over from the proscriptions of seventeenth-century Scottish Presbyterian practice. ‘The types of Sabbath breach offences’ policed by the church had ‘four distinct categories’: the first was ‘simply not attending church’, the second was ‘idling (“vaging” was the contemporary Scots word), entertaining or travelling’,

the third — the one JB here has in mind — ‘was carrying out workaday tasks’, and the fourth was ‘behaviour which would have been considered an offence, albeit not as heinous, on any day of the week, such as drunkenness, fighting, quarrelling, cursing and swearing’ (Leneman, ‘“Prophaning” the Lord’s Day’, p. 219).

Monday 18 January Rose at three. Wrote a Reply in the Forfar Politicks,1 & prepared a Charge to the Jury for Raybould. Went to the Justiciary court at nine.2 Dull reading of the Decreet of the court of session for many hours.3 At two I went home, dined and drank a glass or two of Malaga, & wrote another Reply.4 Returned to the court. The Solicitor5 charged the Jury for the crown. I was very uneasy & frightened. I however began & was soon warm & in spirits, & recollected all my arguments. I really spoke well for above half an hour. I saw my imperfections, & hoped in time to make a real good Speaker. I felt sound ambition, & clear faculties. At eight went to Crosbie’s6 & had tea & a consultation with Mr. James Hay[,] Writer to the Signet.7 He revived in my mind worthy, scots, family ideas. What a variety do I enjoy by observation! I went to bed in good time. 1. Either the Replies dated 19 Jan. in the case of George Skene of Skene and William Milne of Bonnytown v. David Wallace or the Replies of the same date in the case of Walter Ogilvie of Clova and William Douglas of Bridgetown v. James Coutts of Hallgreen (for which cases, see pp. 219–20 n. 2). 2. Raybould’s criminal trial before the High Court of Justiciary commenced this day. ‘Raybould was defended by Alexander Murray, David Armstrong and [JB]. In a preliminary plea, Murray unsuccessfully argued that the indictment was irrelevant on the basis that the [principal] offence with which Raybould was charged did not amount to forgery and that, in any event, forgery was not punishable as a capital offence but only by way of “arbitrary punishment”. The five judges held that the charge was “relevant to infer the pains of death” and ordered that the trial proceed. Henry Dundas (the Solicitor General), for the prosecution, produced the Decreet of Reduction which had been obtained in

the Court of Session and the Decreet was read out in court. Another counsel for the prosecution, Andrew Crosbie . . . , then stated to the court that, although he considered that the decreet was full evidence in the case and could not be challenged by any other evidence whatever and did not require to be corroborated, the prosecution consented to exhibit all the documents which had been produced in the Court of Session proceedings “in order that the Jury might have an opportunity of informing their consciences of every particular relative to this affair in so far as the nature of the thing will permit” [this was because the judges had agreed with a submission by counsel for Raybould quoting a passage from Bankton i. 298–99, where Lord Bankton had stated that “the jury, upon examining the evidence in the decree given by the court of session, may give their verdict either for or against the defender, as they in their conscience judge right; this is the case of all juries, that, if the proof against

225

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 225

27/02/23 6:14 PM

18 january 1768 the party is not convincing to them, they must find him Not guilty” (Maclaurin, pp. 472–73)]. The documents were then duly exhibited, after which Dundas, on behalf of the prosecution, and [JB], on behalf of the accused, respectively charged the jury. The following day the jury returned a unanimous verdict that the accused was art and part guilty of the offences charged. Raybould was then sentenced to be hanged, the execution to take place on 24 February in the Grassmarket ([NRS] JC7/35)’ (BEJ, p. 65 n. 35). 3. Where in a forgery case, as in Raybould’s case, the Court of Session found the accused guilty and remitted the accused to the High Court of Justiciary to undergo a new trial there on indictment (see p. 224 n. 5 above), the witnesses in the High Court of Justiciary were merely such persons as could prove that the accused was the same person who was convicted in the Court of Session, and the productions were ‘only the extracted decree of the Court of Session . . . , and the forged writings themselves, authenticated by the subscription of the President of [the Court of Session]’ (Hume, i. 160–61). 4. MS. ‘Malaga. & wrote’; ‘& wrote another Reply’ interlined. Malaga was a ‘white or (now usually) red fortified wine originally shipped from Malaga’, in Andalusia, in the south of Spain (OED). The Replies which JB wrote were either one of the Replies in the cases mentioned in n. 1 above or the Replies dated 18 Jan. in the case of David Henderson of Stempster v. Sir John Sinclair of Mey (for which case, see p. 219 n. 2).

5. That is, the Solicitor-General for Scotland, Henry Dundas. 6. Crosbie’s Edinburgh residence at this time was in the West Bow (for which, see p. 223 n. 16) and it is said that he was ‘probably the last lawyer that lived in the heart of the coppersmiths of the Bow’ (Ramsay, i. 456 n. 1). 7. At this time, there were two Writers to the Signet called James Hay. One was James Hay of Cocklaw (admitted W.S. 9 Dec. 1728), who died on 20 June 1771 (W.S. Register, p. 142). The other was James Hay (admitted W.S. 3 Aug. 1742), who was the second son of Brig.-Gen. Lord William Hay (d. 1723) of Newhall, Midlothian, and Margaret Hay (1686–1753), and was Warden of the Mint 1744–79. He died in 1779 (W.S. Register, p. 142; Scots Peer. viii. 459, 461). JB would receive instructions from a James Hay, W.S., on 13 Feb. to attend a consultation on behalf of a client called Mudie (see pp. 242–43 n. 5) (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, p. 398). If this consultation concerns the Mudie case, as seems probable (since Crosbie is involved), then the James Hay here is James Hay of Cocklaw. JB’s client Elizabeth (Mudie, or Moodie) Smith is Hay’s sister-in-law, sister of his wife, Agnes (Mudie) (see pp. 242–43 n. 5). JB would also receive instructions from a James Hay on 26 Feb. 1772 to attend a hearing on behalf of a client similarly called Mudie (Consultation Book). The instructing agent in that case was presumably James Hay (c. 1751–88), who was a son of James Hay of Cocklaw and would be admitted W.S. on 3 July 1778 (W.S. Register, p. 142; OPRDB).

Tuesday 19 January Was at the aniversary meeting of the Faculty of Advocates.1 Had the true old sensations, & felt myself Mr. James Boswell, comfortable & secure. Recollected how formerly I should have been wretched with a life so void of vivid enjoyment; but now had force of mind enough to be content.2 At Clerihue’s3 we were very merry. The Dean4 after many ladies had been drank called out here is a toast[:] a young Lady just in her teens [ — ] Miss Corsica — Give her a Gentleman. All called out Paoli. I drank too much. I went to a close in the luckenbooths5 to seek a girl 226

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 226

27/02/23 6:14 PM

20 january 1768 whom I had once seen in the street. I found a natural daughter of the late Lord ,6 a fine lass. I staid an hour & a half with her, & drank malaga, & was most amorous, being so well that no infection remained.7 I felt now that the indifference of the Heiress had cured me, & I was indifferent as to her. I was so happy with Jeany Kinaird8 that I very philosophically reasoned that there was to me9 so much virtue mixed with licentious10 love that perhaps I might be privileged. For it made me humane[,] polite[,] generous — But then lawful love with a woman I really like would make me still better. I forgot the risk I run with this girl. She looked so healthy & so honest I had no fears.11 1. ‘At this meeting, [JB] was appointed to a committee to find a suitable new site for the Advocates’ Library [which was then in the Laigh Hall below the Parliament House] and he was re-elected one of the fifteen “Publick Examinators”. On 16 January 1770 and again on 17 January 1775 [JB] was to be appointed to serve for one year as one of the nine private examinators for the examination of intrants on the Civil Law; and on 14 January 1772, 18 December 1779 and 21 December 1782 respectively he was to be appointed to serve for one year as one of the seven private examinators on Scots law ([MBFA], pp. 179–181, 198, 221, 257, 308 and 337)’ (BEJ, p. 66 n. 39). 2. This passage is reminiscent of the motto from Horace (Epistles, I. xi. 29–30) chosen by Lord Auchinleck to be inscribed above the front door of Auchinleck House: ‘Quod petis hic est, Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit aequus’, which may be translated as ‘What you seek is here, even in Ulubrae, if your mind is firm’ (Hebrides, p. 374 n. 3). ‘Ulubrae, a town near the Pontine marshes of Latium, had been a byword among the Latin authors for its remoteness

from Rome’ (Chauncey Brewster Tinker, Young Boswell, 1922, p. 9). 3. Clerihue’s Tavern. 4. The Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, Alexander Lockhart. 5. For the Luckenbooths, see p. 78 n. 8. 6. Charles Kinnaird (d. 1767), 6th Lord Kinnaird of Inchture (Comp. Peer. vii. 314). MS. There is a hole in the paper here but JB supplies the young woman’s name a few lines later. 7. MS. ‘I went to a close . . . no infection remained’ scored off with a modern pen, apart from ‘I found’. The words ‘a natural daughter of the late Lord’, which are particularly difficult to decipher, are as transcribed in BP, vii. 143. 8. MS. ‘with Jeany Kinaird’ scored off with a modern pen. The word ‘Kinaird’, which is particularly difficult to decipher, is as transcribed in BP, vii. 143. 9. MS. ‘to me’ interlined. 10. MS. ‘licentious’ scored off with a modern pen. 11. MS. ‘I forgot the risk . . . fears’ scored off with a modern pen.

Wednesday 20 January Mr. Geo. Frazer and Mr. Orme1 drank tea and claret with me, consulting on a Plan for Lochmab nse.2 1. Alexander Orme (d. 1789), W.S. (admitted 3 Feb. 1755), later Principal Clerk of Session (1777–89) (W.S. Register, p. 246).

2. Orme was JB’s instructing agent in the case of Rev. Mr. Richard Brown, Minister of Lochmaben v. Heritors, or Kindly Tenants, of Lochmaben (Consultation Book;

227

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 227

27/02/23 6:14 PM

20 january 1768 LPJB 1, p. 377; LPJB 2, pp. 397, 399, 401 and 404). Rev. Richard Brown (or Broun) (1730–81), who studied Divinity at Edinburgh, was ordained minister of Kingarth parish, Bute, in 1756 and presented as minister of Lochmaben in 1765 (LPJB 1, p. 313 n. 1087; Fasti Scot. ii. 214). The case in question, in which JB acted for the heritors (including George Johnstone (1720–92), 3rd Marquis of Annandale, and David Murray (1727–96), 7th Viscount Stormont, later 2nd Earl of Mansfield (Scots Peer. i. 269; viii. 208)) and which he referred to as ‘a most tedious and disagreeable litigation’ (page 1 of printed Petition of George, Marquis of Annandale, David, Viscount of Stormont, and other Heritors, or Kindly Tenants, of the Parish of Lochmaben, dated 24 Jan. 1769 and extending to eighteen pages (Signet Library 144:10), transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 313–26, at p. 313), concerned an old house and offices in the parish of Lochmaben occupied by Brown, the house serving as his manse. Brown claimed that the house and offices were in great need of repair, and on 28 Jan. 1767 the presbytery of Lochmaben had granted decree in his favour for payment by the heritors of a sum for the repairs amounting to almost £225.

The heritors had argued that they were prepared to construct a good new manse and should therefore not be obliged to spend such a large sum on repairing an old house. The heritors therefore proceeded by way of letters of suspension to the Court of Session and, as explained by JB, proposed ‘to have a plan of a manse made out, of reasonable dimensions, with an estimate of what it would cost, when built with that plainness and simplicity which becometh a clergyman’ (page 6 of printed Petition of George, Marquis of Annandale, and others (supra; LPJB 1, p. 317). The heritors decided that a plan of a suitable manse and offices should be drawn by George Frazer (referred to by JB on page 7 of the printed Petition (supra; LPJB 1, p. 318) as ‘the ingenious Mr. George Fraser, a gentleman whose merit is well known to your Lordships’). On 10 Mar., Lord Kames would pronounce an interlocutor ordering that a manse and offices be built at the heritors’ expense (estimated at £240) conform to Frazer’s plan, with certain additions and alterations (pages 10–11 of the printed Petition (supra; LPJB 1, pp. 319–20)). MS. There is a hole in the paper where the letters ‘en’ in ‘Lochmaben’ and ‘Ma’ in ‘Manse’ appear.

Thursday 21 January Lords Stonefield1 and Barjarg[,] Wal. Campbell,2 Geo Cokeburn3 &c dined. I drank tea with Johnston.4 Supt with Dempster5 at Peter Ramsay’s.6 Had a most pleasant evening. 1. John Campbell (d. 1802), Lord Stonefield, admitted advocate 9 Jan. 1748, appointed sheriff-depute of Forfarshire 5 June 1753, Lord of Session 16 June 1762, later Lord Commissioner of Justiciary 1 Mar. 1787 (College of Justice, p. 526). 2. Walter Campbell (1741–1816) of Shawfield, advocate (admitted 27 July 1763), sheriff-depute of Kincardineshire 1767–77 (Fac. Adv., p. 31). 3. George Cockburn (1729–99) of Gleneagles, advocate (admitted 10 July

1751), later George Cockburn Haldane, sheriff-depute of Banffshire 1756–63, sheriff-depute of Stirlingshire and Clackmannanshire 1764–70 (BEJ, p. 67 n. 45; Fac. Adv., p. 92). 4. MS. ‘I drank tea with Johnston’ interlined. At this time, JJ’s house was in Roxburgh’s Close (off the north side of the High Street opposite the Luckenbooths) and he was to remain there until at least June 1772 (BEJ, p. 67 n. 46; Corr. 1, pp. xxviii–xxix and p. 283 n. 9).

228

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 228

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 january 1768 5. JB’s friend George Dempster (1732– 1818), advocate (admitted 2 Mar. 1755), M.P. Perth Burghs 1761–68, 1769–90, Secretary to the Order of the Thistle 1765–90, later director of the East India Company 1769 and 1772–73 (Namier and Brooke, ii. 313–17; Fac. Adv., p. 53). Dempster, who was born into a wealthy trading family in Dundee, set off on the grand tour after being admitted advocate. On his return, he is believed to have practised for a brief period at the Bar, but he soon abandoned the law and decided to apply himself to politics. His election in 1761 as independent M.P. for the Perth Burghs was at ruinous expense. It was at about this time that JB became acquainted with him, and they were to remain on good terms for the rest of JB’s life. JB had a high regard for him, referring to him as ‘a most agreeable well-bred man, sensible and clever, gentle and amiable, quite a gentleman’ (Journ. 3 Nov. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 100). Throughout his career in Parliament, Dempster had a high reputation for honesty, altruism and incorruptibility (BEJ, p. 22). His reputation for incorruptibility stood notwithstanding the fact that ‘like all contemporary politicians, he invoked the aid of bribery in his election campaigns’ (Letters GD, pp. xvi–xvii). 6. Peter Ramsay ‘was the landlord of the “Red Lion” inn, a stabler’s hostelry at the foot of St Mary’s Wynd [near the Cowgate Port], where were “commodious premises, stables, hay-lofts, coach-sheds

and pump all enclosed within a courtyard” (Stuart, p. 114)’ (BEJ, p. 67 n. 48). In 1776 he would advertise ‘his “large and well frequented inn” with its stables for a hundred horses and sheds for over twenty carriages’ (Stuart, p. 116). He retired in 1785, and died in 1794. His obituary in The Scottish Register . . . for January, February, and March 1794, i. 357, referred to him as ‘formerly an eminent innkeeper at the Cowgate Port, Edinburgh, in which station he acquired upwards of £30,000’. JB would often avail himself of Ramsay’s services, and kept an account with him. On 31 Dec. 1774, having ‘resolved to pay off every account that I owed’ at that time, he went with George Webster ‘this forenoon to Peter Ramsay’s, where I paid Peter’s account, and George and I got a dram of cherry brandy’ (Ominous Years, pp. 49–50). On 2 Sept. 1774, it would be from Ramsay’s that JB would hire a chaise for his frantic dash to the home of James Montgomery (the Lord Advocate) in hopes of saving his client John Reid from execution (Defence, Heinemann p. 308, McGraw-Hill p. 295). JB’s ‘An Authentick Account of General Paoli’s Tour to Scotland, Autumn 1771’ would note that Paoli and his companion ‘arrived incognito at Edinburgh, on Tuesday, September 3, at Peter Ramsay’s inn’ (Lond. Mag. Sept. 1771, pp. 433–34; Facts and Inventions, p. 35). See also Jamieson, ‘Some Inns of the Eighteenth Century’, pp. 134–36.

Friday 22 January My Father & I dined at Lord Coalstoun’s.1 I had written to Miss B––– to tell me if she was going to be married to Sir A Gilmour & if she was disengaged & did not write me so, I should upon honour consider it to be the same thing as if she was engaged. No answer had come yet; so I began to exert all my spirit to be free. I drank tea at Mrs. Hamilton of Bangour’s,2 & made my peace for not having visited her since I came home.3 1. George Brown, Lord Coalston. 2. Elizabeth (Dalrymple) (1733–79), widow of William Hamilton of Bangour

(1704–54), poet and supporter of the Jacobite cause (Oxford DNB). Williamson, p. 35, stating the position in 1773/74,

229

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 229

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 january 1768 lists (under ‘Ladies and Gentlewomen’) a Mrs. Hamilton as residing at St. John’s Street. Williamson’s Directory, 1775–76, p. 41, lists ‘Hamilton[,] Mrs of Bangour’ at ‘water-gate’ (the Water Gate, at the foot

of the Canongate, ‘so named on account of its proximity to a large horse-pond’ (BEJ, p. 81 n. 32). 3. This presumably means since coming home from JB’s continental travels.

Saturday 23 January My father & I dined at Lord Galloway’s.1 Old ideas of true people of quality revived. I then went to the Play, to Mrs. Hamilton’s box.2 It was Venice preserved.3 Jaffier[,] Ross,4 Pierre[,] Sowdon;5 I relished it much;6 The Heiress began to lose her dominion over me. I supt at Ross’s after the Play. Sowdon was there, & Cullen7 &c. Felt myself now calm & improved, as I used to wish. 1. For Lord Galloway, see p. 222 n. 9. His Edinburgh residence was a mansion called Galloway House in the Horse Wynd (Cassell’s Edinburgh, ii. 257). He was married to the beautiful Catherine Cochrane (d. 1786), his second wife, who was the third and youngest daughter of John Cochrane (1689–1720), 4th Earl of Dundonald, and his first wife, Lady Anne Murray (d. 1710) (Scots Peer. iii. 354–56). The Earl of Dundonald’s three daughters were celebrated in a poem by William Hamilton of Bangour (‘To Lady Mary Montgomery’) (Hamilton of Bangour, p. 72). 2. At the Theatre Royal (for which, see p. 213 n. 5). 3. Venice Preserv’d, by Thomas Otway (1652–85), his best-known play (first performed in 1682). ‘It is a play about plots, a topical subject, and captures brilliantly a mood of civil discontent, suspicion, and betrayal . . . The hero, Jaffeir . . . is induced to join a conspiracy against the state of Venice by his friend Pierre, an ideologue, a soldier, and a man who has lost his mistress, Aquilina, to the senator Antonio . . . Comic and outrageously perverse scenes between Aquilina and Antonio provided a major element in the play’s immediate popularity and subsequent notoriety’ (Oxford DNB). 4. David Ross. 5. John Sowdon (1712–84), actor, singer, manager (BDA, xiv. 199; Ancestry

(Madeleine Gilbey family tree)). Cal. Merc. for Wed. 20 Jan. noted that ‘Mr. Sowdon the celebrated Tragedian arrived here on Friday last [i.e. 15 Jan.], with an intention (as we hear) to play at this Theatre [i.e. the Theatre Royal] for the remainder of the season.’ ‘Sowdon’s winters, at least in 1768, 1770, and 1771, were spent in Edinburgh . . . His characters included Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, Banquo in Macbeth, . . . Jaques in As You Like It, . . . the old Bachelor, and Pierre in Venice Preserv’d.’ There is no known theatrical record of him after his appearance in As You Like It on 7 Jan. 1771 (BDA, xiv. 201). 6. JB saw the play on several occasions, and in a letter to JJ dated 13 July 1763 remarked that the play ‘has often aroused our souls in the good theatre of Edinburgh’ (Corr. 1, p. 170). 7. Robert Cullen (1742–1810), advocate (admitted 18 Dec. 1764), later appointed Lord of Session (as Lord Cullen) on 18 Nov. 1796 and Lord Commissioner of Justiciary on 29 June 1799 (Fac. Adv., p. 47; College of Justice, p. 543). Cullen, a son of the celebrated physician and chemist William Cullen, M.D. (1710–90), and Anna Johnstone (d. 1786) (Oxford DNB), was renowned as an accomplished mimic, but Cockburn remarked that as an advocate he ‘was too indolent and irregular to attain steady practice’ (Cockburn, p. 131).

230

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 230

27/02/23 6:14 PM

26 january 1768

Sunday 24 January In all forenoon. Afternoon Church — then tea Marchioness Dowager of Lothian.1 Miss Bothwell a sister of the late Lord Holyrood-house was there.2 We had good sollid conversation on the advantages of the christian Religion. Then drank coffee at the Marquis of Lothian’s.3 Found myself as in a London family of fashion. Then visited Lady Craufurd, a most amiable woman.4 Sir John Cathcart & Lady there.5 1. Jean Janet (Kerr) (1712–87), Dowager Marchioness of Lothian, widow (second wife) and cousin of William Ker, 3rd Marquis of Lothian, who had died the previous July. She was the eldest daughter of Lord Charles Kerr and Janet Murray (Scots Peer. v. 480). Sister of Henrietta and Caroline (Kerr) Kincaid. 2. Eleanora Bothwell (d. 1774), who was actually a daughter (not a sister) of Henry Bothwell (d. 1735), styled Lord Holyroodhouse, whose claim to the title was based on a defective pedigree. Henry Bothwell’s only sister, Janet, died in 1729 (Scots Peer. iv. 437–39).

3. William Henry Kerr, 4th Marquis of Lothian. 4. Jean (Hamilton) Lindsay, Countess of Crawford. 5. Sister and brother-in-law of Lady Crawford. Sir John Cathcart (?1735–83) of Killochan Castle (in Dailly parish, Ayrshire), Bt., and his wife, Margaret (Hamilton) (d. 1817), Lady Cathcart, fourth daughter of Robert Hamilton of Bourtreehill and Jean (Mitchell) (for whom, see pp. 211–12 n. 5) (Comp. Bar. iv. 419; Ayr and Wigton, III. i. 274–75).

Monday 25 January In all day. M. Dupont1 drank tea with me; had two consultations.2 Supt Mrs. Hamilton of Bangour’s, an Edinburgh evening. Found I was fit for any company. Before my Account of Corsica came out,3 I was desirous to have all my visits paid, as I thenceforward intended if possible to maintain a propriety and strictness of manners. 1. Rev. Pierre Loumeau Dupont. 2. The consultations are not shown in the Consultation Book. 3. An Account of Corsica was in the press and proofs had been arriving since 2

Sept. 1767, but the printing was not completed until about the end of Dec. 1767 (Earlier Years, pp. 337–39). For details of the publication of the work, see pp. 244–45 n. 1.

Tuesday 26 January All the evening was employed in writing to Paoli[,]1 Mr. Burnaby2 &c before the great æra of the publication of my Book. I sat up till past two — 1. JB’s letter to Paoli is not reported (Corr. 7, p. 15). 2. Rev. Andrew Burnaby (?1734– 1812), chargé d’affaires, Leghorn, from whom JB solicited and received materials

in connection with his research for the writing of An Account of Corsica (Corr. 5, p. xxxv; Corr. 7, p. 288). JB’s letter of 26 Jan. to Burnaby is not reported (Corr. 7, p. 11).

231

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 231

27/02/23 6:14 PM

27 january 1768

Wednesday 27 January My Father & Claud & I dined at Lord Barjarg’s.1 It was just a family dinner. I felt myself palled with insipidity, so high is my taste of society grown. I drank tea at Mrs. Hunter’s of Polmood,2 & revived Sommelsdyck & Auchinleck ideas.3 I then came home & wrote papers busily till 7. Then had a consultation at the Hon. A. Gordon[’]s.4 Then supt Mrs. Cockburn’s.5 A great company there. Felt myself quite easy, but still subject to fall in love with the woman next me at table. I have from nature a feverish constitution which time has moderated & will at last cure. Mrs. Cockburn said a man much versant in love was not so valuable — I maintained he was[,] for a hack if not lamed or too much worn down, is the cleverest horse when put on good pasture. 1. Williamson, front matter, stating the position in 1773/74, gives the Edinburgh residence of Lord Barjarg (who from 1772 was known as Lord Alva) as being in Argyle Square. 2. Veronica (Murray) (d. 1769), widow of Robert Hunter (c. 1694–1744), younger of Polmood, whom she had married on 5 Sept. 1721 (OPRDB and OPRBM; Scots Mag. July 1769, xxxi. 391). Daughter of Sir David Murray of Stanhope, Bt., and his first wife, Lady Anne Bruce (Comp. Bar. iii. 342; Clan MacFarlane). Sister of Janet Murray, wife of Lord Charles Kerr, and thus aunt of Henrietta, Mrs. Kincaid and Jean Janet. 3. Mrs. Hunter’s maternal grandmother was Veronica van Aerssen van Sommelsdyck, wife of Alexander Bruce, 2nd Earl of Kincardine. Veronica van Aerssen van Sommelsdyck was JB’s great-grandmother (Ominous Years, Chart III, p. 376). 4. The Hon. Alexander Gordon. Williamson, p. 28, stating the position in 1773/74, gives his Edinburgh address as being on the Castle Hill. The consultation is not shown in the Consultation Book. 5. Alison (or Alice or Alicia) Cockburn (née Rutherford) (1713–94), authoress, tireless correspondent and literary hostess.

‘She was the widow of Patrick Cockburn of Ormiston, advocate, who died in 1753, leaving her with an inconsiderable income. “She never, however, lost her liveliness, her insatiable love of mischief, mockery, and match-making . . . At the gatherings at her little parlour, Mrs Cockburn was to be seen attired in her striped silk saque, with her auburn hair turned back and covered with cap or lace hood, bound beneath her chin” (Graham, [SML,] p. 331). In [1765] was published her famous song “The Flowers of the Forest” (possibly written more than thirty years earlier), which was set to an existing air . . . “This woman had the kindliest of souls . . . There were merry dancings in the tiny sitting-room of her flat [in what came to be called Blair’s Close] near the Castle. On these nights the furniture was piled up high in the lobby, and the fiddler in the cupboard played and panted over strathspeys, or Lord Kellie’s last minuet” (ibid., pp. 332–3)’ (BEJ, p. 68 n. 54). She wrote Letters and memoir of her own life, by Mrs Alison Rutherford or Cockburn (ed. T. Craig-Brown), published in 1900. Nowadays her reputation rests primarily on her ‘effervescent correspondence, chronicling her role in the cultural and literary scenes of the day’ (Oxford DNB).

Thursday 28 January My Father was confined with a severe cold. I saw his great worth & value to me, when I was reminded of the danger of losing him. I resolved to act towards him 232

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 232

27/02/23 6:14 PM

29 january 1768 in such a way as to make his life comfortable, and give me the consolation after he is gone that I have done my duty, & may hope for the same attention from my son. I was not abroad but at the Parliament house, & dining at Lord President’s.1 1. That is, at the house of Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session, in Adam’s Court.

Friday 29 January [H]ad Halglenmuir1 & Knockroon2 to dine.3 Went after supper to Baillie Hunter’s,4 & sat a while with Lady Craufurd & a good many more company. Sat too late. I resolved to be more regular, as I really had a constant fever & sweating every morning.5 1. Alexander Mitchell of Hallglenmuir. 2. John Boswell of Knockroon. 3. MS. ‘[H]ad Halglenmuir & Knockroon to dine’ interlined. 4. James Hunter (1741–87), who served on the Town Council of Edinburgh from 1763 to 1768 and for part of that time was a bailie. He would be reelected to the Council in 1777 (BEJ, p. 68 n. 58; Namier and Brooke, ii. 657). In 1756, Hunter commenced an apprenticeship with the Edinburgh banking firm of Coutts Bros. & Co. and was assumed as a partner in 1763, when the firm was reorganized as John Coutts & Co. Another partner (from 1761) was Sir William Forbes (for whom, see p. 268 n. 27). In 1773, the firm would change its name to that of Sir William Forbes, James Hunter and Co. (Corr. 10, pp. lix n. 1, 3 n. 2; Oxford DNB; Corr. 7, p. 115 n. 1; Checkland, p. 157). After 1777, when his wife, Jean (or Jane), daughter of John Blair of Dunskey, succeeded to the Dunskey estates, Hunter would assume the name of Hunter-Blair (Namier and Brooke, ii. 657). He would be elected M.P. for Edinburgh in 1781; and in 1784, shortly after vacating his seat as M.P., would be elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh. ‘He played a major role in the building of the magnificent new College

(now known as Old College) in place of the old, ramshackle buildings. He was also the promoter of the construction of the much-needed South Bridge over the Cowgate, work on which started in 1785’ (BEJ, p. 248 n. 55). ‘In private life Sir James was affable and cheerful, warmly attached to his friends, and anxious for their success . . . His talents were of the highest order— to an unwearied application, he united great knowledge of the world, sagacity in business, and soundness of understanding; and he died unusually respected’ (Kay, i. 64. See also LPE, p. 83; Oxford DNB). In 1785, he would be appointed joint King’s Printer and Stationer in Scotland, and he would be created a baronet in 1786 (Namier and Brooke, ii. 657; Comp. Bar. v. 258). For full details of his role in the partnership with JB’s future banker and executor, Sir William Forbes, in the firm of Sir William Forbes, James Hunter and Co., see Corr. 10. 5. The fever may have been caused by a recurrence of the malaria which JB had first contracted in Corsica (Journ. 28 Oct 1765, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 201, McGraw-Hill p. 190). In the autumn of 1766, JB had had ‘three or four returns of the ague’ (To Sir Alexander Dick, 23 Oct. 1766, Corr. 5, p. 75). See also pp. 137–38 n. 9.

233

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 233

27/02/23 6:14 PM

30 january 1768

Saturday 30 January I staid in all forenoon writing Replies for Hardrigs, in the division of Dornock Commonty.1 Dined John Chalmer’s2 with Halglenmuir[,] Jas. Neill[,]3 Knockroon &c.4 1. The case of Duke of Queensberry and Robert Irvine of Woodhall v. John Carruthers of Hardrigs concerning the division of the commonty of Dornock (in Annandale, Dumfriesshire), in which JB acted for the defender, John Carruthers, owner of the estate of Hardrigs (or Hardriggs) in Annandale, and was instructed by his good friend JJ. Carruthers had succeeded his older brother William (d. 1759) in Hardrigs (Carruthers Family, p. 146, Chart p. 26). Robert Irvine (or Irving) (c. 1721–1800) would serve as a Justice of the Peace for thirtyone years (Dornock Churchyard, ). In notes dated 14 Jan. 1768, JB sent his ‘compliments to Mr. Johnston, and . . . all that is necessary for the Petition [to be allowed to lodge Replies] of which they spoke together this night’ (Corr. 1, p. 236). The action had been raised as far back as 1750, and in 1764 Carruthers had lodged a Petition claiming that he had an interest in the commonty, and was entitled to a share of the commonty, in respect of the possession held by his tenants. However, on 27 Feb. 1767, after a proof had taken place in respect of the possession held by the tenants, Lord Elliock pronounced an interlocutor finding that there was insufficient evidence of possession by the tenants and therefore that Carruthers had no claim to any share of the commonty. Carruthers then reclaimed to the Inner House. His first reclaiming petition was refused, but he lodged a second which was allowed to be answered. The pursuers duly lodged Answers, and on 26 Jan. 1768 JB was instructed by JJ to draft Replies (LPJB 2, pp. 84–85 and p. 397; Consultation Book; Court of Session process (NRS CS29 Mack. 17–20 Jan. 1789)). JB’s printed Replies, dated 2 Feb. 1768 and

extending to twelve pages together with a copy letter subjoined (Signet Library 107:5), is transcribed in LPJB 2, pp. 85–93. In the Replies, JB reviewed aspects of the evidence of witnesses led at the proof with regard to the tenants’ possession and argued that the pursuers (the respondents in respect of the reclaiming petition) had given ‘a very partial representation of the proof’ (page 10 of the Replies (supra); LPJB 2, p. 91). On 28 July, the court would find in favour of Carruthers, pronouncing an interlocutor holding that there was sufficient evidence of possession by virtue of pasturage or otherwise upon the commonty by Carruthers’s tenants as to entitle him to a right of common property in the commonty (LPJB 2, p. 93; Court of Session process (supra)). However, the pursuers would appeal by way of reclaiming petition. On 13 Dec., JB would receive instructions to draft Duplies, and on 17 July 1769 he would receive instructions to attend a consultation (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, pp. 94, 404 and 408). On 20 Oct. 1769, Carruthers and the pursuers would enter into a Minute of Agreement. ‘It would appear that the Minute of Agreement set out the basis on which the parties wished Carruthers to be found entitled to a share of the commonty when the court ultimately determined the appropriate division. However, there were subsequently many years in which the parties took no steps in the action’ (LPJB 2, p. 94). There would be no ruling on the division until 9 Feb. 1787, when Lord Alva (formerly known as Lord Barjarg) pronounced an interlocutor in which Carruthers was duly found entitled to draw a share of the commonty (ibid.; Court of Session process (supra); Decreet of Division of Dornock Commonty (NRS CS26/793)). Carruthers’s cause ‘appears for

234

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 234

27/02/23 6:14 PM

31 january 1768 the greater part to have been in the hands of David Armstrong’ (Corr. 1, p. 236 n. 1). 2. John Muir Chalmer, W.S. Williamson, p. 13, stating the position in 1773/74, gives Chalmer’s residence as being in Canongatehead. On 28 Jan., JB had received instructions from Chalmer to attend a hearing before Lord Kennet in the case of John Guthrie and Others v. James Blair and Others in which certain burgesses of the burgh of Prestwick were seeking a new election of magistrates of Prestwick (LPJB 2, pp. 95–100; Consultation Book; LPJB 2, p. 398), and on or about 29 Jan. JB had drafted a brief Petition to the Inner House in the case of John Guthrie and Others v. Magistrates of Prestwick (for which, see pp. 194–95 n. 3) in which Chalmer was again the instructing agent (NRS CS228/G/3/24; LPJB 1, p. 229).

3. Possibly James Neill, merchant in (and former bailie of) Ayr (for whom, see pp. 196–97 n. 1), but probably his son, James Neill, writer in Ayr (for whom, see p. 190 n. 2). 4. Hallglenmuir, Neill and Knockroon had been all together with JB at Sarah Bowie’s tavern in Ayr on 23 May 1767 when three bailies of Prestwick were present (see the entry for that date). A James Neil (or Neill) senior and a James Neil younger were listed as burgesses of Prestwick having an interest in the division of the burgh’s arable lands (pages 8–9 of JB’s reclaiming petition for John Guthrie and others, dated 24 Nov. 1768 and extending to twelve pages in the handwriting of a clerk (NRS CS228/G/3/24), transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 235–39; and interlocutor of Lord Monboddo dated 5 Mar. 1773 (NRS CS228/G/3/24; LPJB 1, p. 242)).

Sunday 31 January Forenoon at church. Dined Mr. Moncrieffe’s1 with Prebendary Douglas & Lady,2 Lady3 & Miss Edin[,]4 all from Durham[,] who wished much to see the Authour of the Essence of the Douglas Cause.5 Lord John Murray was there.6 All was elegant & really agreable. At night went to Sally’s mother & renewed gallantry.7 1. David Stewart Moncrieffe. 2. Rev. James Douglas (d. 1780), D.D., prebendary of Durham Cathedral, and his wife, Jean (Halyburton) (d. 1782). In 1774 he would become, ‘by the death of his elder brother’, head of the family of Douglas of Cavers, but ‘died issueless’ (Baptismal, Marriage, and Burial Registers of the Cathedral Church . . . at Durham, 1609–1896, transcribed and annotated by Edward Arthur White, ed. George J. Armytage, Harleian Society, 1897, p. 125 and nn. 5 and 9; Burke’s Landed Gentry, 6th ed., i. 472). 3. MS. ‘Lady — Lady’. 4. Mary (Davidson) (d. 1794), Lady Eden, wife of Sir Robert Eden (c. 1718–55) of Windleston and West Auckland, Bt., and her daughter, Catherine Eden (later

wife of John Moore (c. 1730–1805), Archbishop of Canterbury) (Comp. Bar. iv. 54; Oxford DNB, s.v. John Moore). 5. For JB’s Essence of the Douglas Cause, see Introduction, pp. 24–26. 6. Lord John Murray (1711–87), commander of the 42nd Regt. of Foot (the Royal Highland Regiment (or Black Watch)), appointed Col. 1745, Brigadier 1746, Maj.-Gen. 1755, Lt.-Gen. 1758 and Gen. 1770 (Army Lists for 1755, 1770 and 1787 (National Archives Discovery WO65/1, WO65/20 and WO65/37)). Son of John Murray, 1st Duke of Atholl, and his second wife, Lady Mary Ross. He had served as aide-de-camp to King George II in Germany in 1743, was M.P. for Perthshire 1734–1761 and brother-in-law of James Ogilvy, 6th Earl of Findlater, whose

235

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 235

27/02/23 6:14 PM

31 january 1768 wife, Mary Murray, was his sister (Namier and Brooke, iii. 186; Oxford DNB). The Black Watch, ‘raised in about 1725 from six Independent companies of Highlanders, was known as the Highland Regiment of Foot from 1739 to 1751, the 42nd Foot from 1751 to 1758 and the 42nd (The

Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot from 1758 to 1861 (Swinson, p. 139)’ (LPJB 1, p. 96 n. 341). The regiment served in Ireland from 1767 to 1775 (Black Watch, p. 9). 7. MS. ‘At night . . . gallantry’ scored off with a modern pen.

Monday 1 February Was busy all day with law, till 5, when I drank tea at Miss Montgomerie’s. At 7 Consulted at Solicitor’s.1 1. That is, at the house of Henry Dundas, Solicitor-General for Scotland. On this day, JB received instructions to attend a consultation in the case of David Henderson of Stempster v. Sir John Sinclair of Mey (for which, see p. 219 n. 2) (Consultation Book; LPJB 2, pp. 20 and 398). No other

consultation is mentioned in the Consultation Book at about this time. Assuming that that consultation is the one to which JB refers, it would seem that David Henderson of Stempster had engaged Henry Dundas (as well as JB) to act for him (LPJB 2, p. 20 n. 67).

Tuesday 2 February At 7 met Mr. Alexr. Orem1 & Holmains[,]2 Geo Frazer[,] William Hay3 & Jamie Baillie4 at Clerihue’s at a treat given by the Heretors of Lochmaben.5 Mr. Ross6 had come up to me & asked me to sup with him; so I went & found Sir Johns Cathcart7 & Whitefoord.8 We were very merry & pleasant. I drank a great deal though I was not well yet. Between 2 and 3 I went to Sally’s Mother’s and renewed again.9 What a life do I lead! 1. That is, Alexander Orme, W.S. 2. John Carruthers (1731–1809), 12th Laird of Holmains (near Lochmaben), sonin-law of Sir Robert Laurie, 4th Bt. of Maxwelton, whose daughter, Charlotte Laurie (c. 1743–1821), he had married in 1762 (Carruthers Family, Chart p. 21; OPRBB and OPRDB). 3. William Hay of Crawfordton, W.S. 4. James Baillie, writer, and notary public (admitted 5 Dec. 1759), in Edinburgh (Finlay, i. 294, No. 1560).

5. The heritors of Lochmaben were the defenders in the case of Rev. Mr. Richard Brown, Minister of Lochmaben v. Heritors, or Kindly Tenants, of Lochmaben (for which, see pp. 227–28 n. 2)). 6. David Ross, the actor/manager. 7. Sir John Cathcart of Killochan Castle. 8. Sir John Whitefoord of Ballochmyle. 9. MS. ‘I was not well yet . . . renewed again’ scored off with a modern pen.

Wednesday 3 February I awaked so ill, I could hardly rise, & all forenoon I was quite out of order & feverish after my debauchery. I felt myself a very rake, as I pleaded a cause before Lord Monboddo.1 236

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 236

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7 february 1768 1. JB appeared at a hearing before Lord Monboddo on this day in the case of John Guthrie and Others v. Magistrates of

Prestwick (for which, see pp. 194–95 n. 3) (LPJB 1, p. 229; NRS CS228/G/3/24).

Thursday 4 February I was busy and regular.

Friday 5 February I supt at Lord Monboddo’s1 with Lords Coalston & Kennet, Mrs. Murray of Stormont2 &c. I was quite easy. I saw Lords of session in a quite different light from what I have done by looking only at awful Judges.3 Claret fevered me, & I again went to Sally’s mother & renewed.4 1. For Lord Monboddo’s suppers, see p. 122 n. 3. 2. One of the unmarried sisters of Lord Mansfield (for whom, see p. 326 n. 2), probably either Margaret (d. 1785) or Nicolas Helen (d. 1777), the celebrated ‘Miss Nicky Murray’, directress of the Edin-

burgh dancing assemblies (Scots Peer. viii. 207; BEJ, p. 87 n. 61; Chambers, p. 288). 3. JB uses the word ‘awful’ in the sense of that which inspires awe. 4. MS. ‘, & I again went to Sally’s mother & renewed’ scored off with a modern pen.

Saturday 6 February Breakfasted at the President’s.1 Was too late for a cause before Lord Monboddo. Determined to confine myself to the Parliament house all the forenoon. Considered the law is my profession, my occupation in life. Saw it not to be such a mystery as I apprehended. 1. That is, at the house of Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session, in Adam’s Court.

Sunday 7 February Church forenoon.1 Heard Mr. Butter in St. Pauls Chapel afternoon.2 Drank tea with Mrs. Montgomerie Cuninghame.3 Then visited Lady Maxwell.4 Was quite chearful & well. Mr. Fullarton (the Nabob) came in.5 Miss Blair was now arrived. He proposed we should go & visit her. We went. She was reserved & distant. I saw plainly all was over. Yet I could not be quite certain. Fullarton & I came away together. I liked the man. I asked him freely how he was. We owned candidly to each other that we were both for Miss Blair. I insisted that he & I should not part that night. I carried him to sup at Mrs. M. Cuninghame’s & then we adjourned to Clerihue’s. I opened the Nabob’s mind & he & I gave each other a fair recital of all that we hoped from the Heiress. It was agreed I had her heart 237

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 237

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7 february 1768 once & perhaps still if she was not engaged to Sir Alexander Gilmour. Come[,] said I[,] we shall be at our wits end. If youll ask her tomorrow, upon honour I’ll ask her. We shook hands & wished all happiness to him who should succeed. Never was there a more curious scene. At 2 in the morning I went to Sally’s Mother and being flushed with claret, renewed my love.6 1. At the New Church in St. Giles’. 2. A ‘Qualified Chapel’ in Skinner’s Close, off the south side of the High Street (Bertie, p. 651; ‘An Old Edinburgh City Chapel in the Eighteenth Century. St. Paul’s Chapel in Skinner’s Close’, in Scottish Guardian, iii. 18) (correcting Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 133 n. 1, McGrawHill p. 124 n. 3). The Rev. Charles Butter was the incumbent from 1764 until 1772, when he went back to England in poor health (Bertie, pp. 18 and 651). He had been pastor at the chapel from 1754 (Scottish Guardian, iii. 50). The Qualified Chapels, where services were conducted in accordance with the liturgy of the Church of England, ‘were those places of “Episcopalian” worship in Scotland whose clergy “qualified” to minister under various Acts of Parliament . . . which laid down conditions for lawful “Episcopalian” worship’. Although the congregations referred to themselves as ‘Episcopalian’, they did not have (and were not subject to) any bishops. Their clergy ‘were in English or Irish orders, but were not subject to the authority of the Church of England’ (Bertie, p. 649; see also DSCHT, p. 687). As Lawson remarks, ‘it need hardly be observed that an Episcopal Church without a Bishop is a contradiction in terms’ (Lawson, p. 300). Although JB regularly attended the (Presbyterian) New Church in St. Giles’, he was actually far fonder of the Anglican form of service, and every now and then would visit one of the Qualified Chapels. His first such visit had been in the latter part of 1755 (probably on Christmas day (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 38 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 35 n. 2)) when he was taken by his friend WJT to what JB called ‘Porter’s Chapel’ (Journ. 25 Dec. 1776, Extremes, p. 69) at the foot

of Carrubber’s Close (off the north side of the High Street). It seems that this was the chapel referred to by Bertie (p. 651) as St. Andrew’s Chapel; and Mr. Porter was no doubt the incumbent (JB was still referring to the chapel as ‘Porter’s meeting house’ at the end of 1768 (To JJ, 25 Dec. 1768, Corr. 1, p. 245) and so it seems that Porter was the incumbent from at least 1755 to 1768). The chapel was evidently in the building erected by Allan Ramsay (the poet) in 1736 as a playhouse, but which had been summarily closed by the disapproving city magistrates in 1737. Later in the century, St. Andrew’s Chapel would be occupied by the Rev. John Barclay (1733–98), Church of Scotland minister and founder of the sect of the Bereans (Cassell’s Edinburgh, i. 239; Wilson, ii. 43–44; Oxford DNB). In his journal entry of 2 Sept. 1781 (Laird, p. 394), JB would record hearing Barclay praying and lecturing ‘drearily and wildly’ and would identify the chapel where this took place as being the same chapel as the one at the foot of Carrubber’s Close where he had first been ‘charmed with the Church-ofEngland worship’. JB said that the Anglican form of service always raised his mind ‘to exalted devotion and meditation on the joys of heaven’ (JB’s ‘Inviolable Plan’, printed in Holland, Heinemann pp. 375–78, at p. 376, McGraw-Hill pp. 387–90, at p. 388) and that in the Qualified Chapels ‘the grand sound of the Organ . . . lifts the soul to the celestial Regions’ (To JJ, 27 Oct. 1762, Corr. 1, pp. 17–18). ‘None of the Presbyterian churches had organs, for the Church of Scotland considered them to be idolatrous and did not allow their use until 1865’ (BEJ, p. 15 n.). The organ in St. Paul’s Chapel was made by John Snetzler, organ maker in Oxford Street, London, and

238

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 238

27/02/23 6:14 PM

8 february 1768 consisted of ‘seven full stops and two half stops, with case, bellows, and keys’ (Scottish Guardian, iii. 50). For a detailed account of JB’s ‘English Episcopal’ circle of friendships and activities, in and around Edinburgh, central to all of which were Sir William Forbes and others such as JJ and the Erskine family of Kellie, see Corr. 10, pp. lxxvi, ci– cii, cviii, cxvii–cxviii and n. 194, cxix–cxx and n. 202, 10 n. 1, 17 n. 1, 48 n. 6, 67 n. 3, 87–88 n. 6, 205–06 n. 7. 3. Elizabeth (Montgomerie) Montgomerie-Cuninghame of Lainshaw. 4. See p. 125 n. 6. 5. William Fullarton (or Fullerton or Fullartoun) (d. 1805) of Rosemount (an estate in Symington parish, Ayrshire). He was a surgeon who had acquired considerable wealth in India (Ayrshire, p. 311; Earlier Years, p. 337). He ‘joined the East India Company’s service in 1744 and was second surgeon in Calcutta in 1751. He was present at the siege of Calcutta in 1756 and became mayor of Calcutta in 1757. In 1763 Fullerton became a surgeon to the Patna Agency . . . Numerous East India Company officials adopted aspects of Indian court

life during their careers in India, and, as an excellent linguist, Fullerton was very much at home in Bengal, keeping one or more Indian bibis (mistresses)’ (Victoria and Albert website, ). ‘[O]n his return from India in 1770, [he] added greatly to the paternal estate, and so improved it that it became one of the finest and best cultivated domains in the county’ (Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 747). He had evinced a keen interest in Catherine Blair since July 1767 (To WJT, 29 July 1767, Corr. 6, p. 197). In 1772 (OPRBM), he would marry Annabella Craufurd (d. 1826), daughter of Ronald Craufurd (d. 1762) of Restalrig, W.S. (admitted 7 Mar. 1732), and Katherine Forbes (W.S. Register, p. 72; Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 747). She was a sister of Margaret Craufurd (d. 1799), who in 1771 would marry Patrick MacDowall-Crichton, 6th Earl of Dumfries, and thereby become Countess of Dumfries (Scots Peer. iii. 237; Comp. Peer. iv. 501). 6. MS. ‘At 2 in the morning . . . renewed my love’ scored off with a modern pen.

Monday 8 February Between 9 & 10 went to Miss B–––. ‘Come, before they come in, are you engaged or no?’ She seemed reserved. I said You know I am much in love with you, & if you are not engaged I would take a good deal of trouble to make myself agreable to you. She said ‘you need not take the trouble. Now you must not be angry with me.’ Indeed no, said I. But is it really so? Say upon your word, upon honour. She did so. I therefore was satisfied.1 My spirit was such that though I felt some regret, I appeared quite easy & gay. I made her give me breakfast, & with true philosophy I put my mind in a proper frame. It was agreed that we were not to ask her if she was engaged. She gave me a lecture on my conduct towards her, in talking without reserve. At 12 the Nabob was with her, & she treated him with the greatest coldness. He & I met at the cross2 at 2 & joked & laughed with all our acquaintance. I did the Nabob much good; for I relieved him from serious love by my vivacity. I have one of the most singular minds ever was formed. 1. JB reported to WJT that he went on to say: ‘What then . . . have I no chance? No said She. I asked her to say

so upon her word and upon honour. She fairly repeated the words.’ JB therefore concluded that ‘All is over between Miss

239

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 239

27/02/23 6:14 PM

8 february 1768 Blair and me.’ ‘Now that all is over,’ he remarks, ‘I see many faults in her, which I did not see before . . . I am honourably off, and . . . I am very easy and cheerful’ (To WJT, 8–11 Feb. 1768, Corr. 6, pp. 222–23). However, all was not entirely over, for JB would inform WJT in Dec. 1768 that he had been ‘two or three times’ at Adamton ‘and upon my word the old flame was kindled. The wary mother . . . told me that it was my own fault that her daughter was not long ago my wife. But that after the young Lady had shewn me very particu-

lar marks of regard, corresponded with me &c., I had made such a joke of my love for the heiress in every company, that she was piqued, & did not believe that I had any serious intentions . . . I walked whole hours with the Princess. I kneeled, I became truly amorous. But she told me that “really she had a very great regard for me; but did not like me so as to marry me”. You never saw such coldness’ (To WJT, 9 Dec. 1768, Corr. 6, p. 244). 2. The Market Cross of Edinburgh (for which, see p. 222 n. 7).

Tuesday 9 [2] February1 Mr Claud2 & I visited the Heiress [ — ] She seemed very ordinary today.3 My Lord President & his Lady[,]4 Mrs. Montgomerie Cuninghame[,] Professour Stevenson5 &c dined. Mrs. Dundas & I danced at a private Ball at Fortune’s6 [ — ] a very good company. The Nabob was there & I made him talk easily & be quite cheerful. After supper I gave for my toast ‘May we bear our misfortunes with spirit’ & sung The mind of a woman.7 Lord Monboddo was there & highly pleased. All my prejudices against Edinburgh were worn off. I saw the company quite agreable & elegant enough, with a great deal of virtuous manners. 1. ‘Here in the MS begins a curious misnumbering of the entries, which do not run correctly again until that for 15 February is reached. It looks as though [JB] had fallen two weeks or more behind with his Journal, and were now writing it up from memory with only the calendar to guide him. When he came to 9 February, he made the easy mistake of antedating by a week, and set down 2 February. He continued this numbering, recalling what he had done by the sequence of days in the week, but giving the days the dates of a week earlier. However, when he came to his supposed 8 February (really the 15th) his memory naturally failed him, for he had already accounted for everything up to the 15th, and to that entry he was able to assign the correct date, for it was the memorable day on which he was informed that Corsica was ready for publication. Hence his puzzled statements for two days that he “cannot say

what he did” and that he “has forgotten,” followed by five complete blanks. As a matter of fact, the only day without an entry is 11 February’ (BP, vii. 148 n. 1). 2. Claud Boswell of Balmuto. 3. MS. ‘Mr. Claud & I . . . ordinary today’ interlined. 4. Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session, and his wife, Jean (Grant). 5. Professor John Stevenson (1695– 1775), Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh 1730–74. ‘He was an innovative teacher, replacing scholastic logic with the philosophy of John Locke, and introducing the study of belleslettres and literary style into the teaching of rhetoric’ (University of Edinburgh website, ). JB had studied under Stevenson during his university education, starting with Stevenson’s

240

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 240

27/02/23 6:14 PM

11 february 1768 course on Logic in 1756–57 (Pottle, ‘Boswell’s University Education’, pp. 235 and 237–38). Stevenson’s lectures on logic were delivered in Latin and were said to have been ‘dry and barren’; but his classes in Belles Lettres, which were given in English, were considered to be highly ‘inviting and profitable’ (Somerville, pp. 12–14; see also BEJ, p. 70 n. 69). In Pottle’s summary, Stevenson’s teaching had a twofold effect on JB: ‘The college course which really opened [JB’s] mind the most was John Stevenson’s class in Logic, which he attended during the session of 1756–1757. The title “Logic” was merely a convenient short designation: Stevenson actually covered logic, metaphysics, history of philosophy, and theory of criticism. . . . Stevenson illustrated the critical theories by readings from ancient and modern poets, and required his students to write essays.’ The portion of the course ‘dealing with literature opened and enriched [JB’s] mind’. But on the other hand, the metaphysics of the course proved ‘unsettling’ for JB. It produced in him ‘a horrible melancholy. The study of metaphysics forced him to think about the problem of determinism, or, to state the problem in the terms in which it usually presented itself to him, of God’s foreknowledge and man’s free will. He found that he could not reconcile the two logically, and with that realization lost for ever the foundations of his peace’ (Earlier Years, pp. 24–25, 32). 6. Fortune’s Tavern. 7. ‘The Mind of a Woman’ is a song in A Jovial Crew, one of JB’s ‘favourite plays . . . several of whose songs he had memorized’. The play ‘was a revived adaptation of the

comedy by Richard Brome (c.1590–1652), first performed in 1641, and said to be the last play acted in London before the suppression of the theatres under Cromwell. It was revived many times after the Restoration, spawned many imitations, and was altered into a comic opera (as part of the vogue caused by the success of Gay’s Beggar’s Opera) by Edward Roome (d. 1729), Sir William Yonge (c.1693–1755) and Mathew Concanen (1701–49), opening at Drury Lane in 1731. Covent Garden revived this comic opera version, The Jovial Crew, or The Merry Beggars, with music arranged by William Bates, in February 1760, and it was running at the time of [JB]’s first London escapade [in 1760]. It proved a huge popular success, was thereafter performed several times yearly, and held the stage for some fifteen years’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 398 n. 7). JB attended a performance at Covent Garden on 13 Jan. 1763 and recorded in his journal: ‘The songs revived in my mind many gay ideas, and recalled in the most lively colours to my Imagination the time when I was first in London, when all was new to me, when I felt the warm glow of youthfull feeling, and was full of curiosity and wonder’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 95). The song ‘The Mind of a Woman’ commences with the words: The Mind of a Woman can never be known, You never can guess it aright: I’ll tell you the Reason––She knows not her own, It changes so often e’er Night. (The Jovial Crew: or, The Merry Beggars, London, 1767, p. 13)

Wednesday 10 [3] February I breakfasted at Lord President’s.

Thursday 11 [4] February

241

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 241

27/02/23 6:14 PM

12 february 1768

Friday 12 [5] February Lord Justice Clerk[,]1 Mr. David Kennedy[,] Ilay Campbell[,] Mr. Alexr. Tait[,] Jo. Davidson2 &c dined. 1. Thomas Miller of Barskimming. 2. John Davidson (d. 1797), W.S. (admitted 3 Apr. 1749). ‘Author of a tract on the Regiam Majestatem and another on the Black Acts; also in 1771, Accounts of

the Chamberlain of Scotland, 1329–1331. Crown Agent. Deputy Keeper of the Signet, 1778–97’ (W.S. Register, p. 83). ‘He was a man of superior abilities, and of great acuteness and industry’ (Kay, i. 243).

Saturday 13 [6] February I dined at Lord Justice Clerk’s1 with my father. Lords Kinnoul[,] Coalston[,] Kames, Baron Winn2 &c were there. I drank pretty freely & after five went to Sally’s mother & renewed. She told me she was again[,] she believed[,] as before.3 I was a little embarrassed; but just submitted my mind to it. I then went to Crosbie & had some tea. Then he & I went to Mr. James Hay’s4 & had a consultation with Mrs. Smith of forret.5 It6 was quite in old stile,7 & when it was over honest Mr. Hay gave us a couple of bottles of claret. This inflamed me again, and I went back to Sally’s mother. She really looked pretty.8 1. Williamson, front matter, stating the position in 1773/74, gives Thomas Miller of Barskimming’s Edinburgh residence as being in Brown Square. ‘Brown Square [was] a small, fashionable quadrangle lying to the east of Candlemaker Row. The houses, which were erected in 1763–4, “were deemed fine mansions and found favour with the upper classes, before a stone of the New Town was laid” ([Cassell’s Edinburgh, ii. 269])’ (BEJ, p. 117 n. 30). 2. George Winn (1725–98), called to the English Bar in 1755, Baron of Exchequer in Scotland 1761–76, later created baronet 1776, M.P. for Ripon 1789–98, created Lord Headley in 1797 (Comp. Peer. vi. 429–30; Namier and Brooke, ii. 17). 3. MS. ‘& after five . . . as before’ scored off with a modern pen. 4. James Hay of Cocklaw, W.S. 5. Elizabeth (Mudie, or Moodie) Smith (1709–c. 1791), widow of Robert Smith (d. 1752) of Forret (in Fife), M.D., physician in Montrose, and a sister-in-law of James Hay of Cocklaw, whose wife, Agnes (Mudie)

(1711–86), was her sister. Hay and Agnes (Mudie) were the parents of the advocate Charles Hay (1747–1811), who would be elevated to the bench in 1806 as Lord Newton (Fac. Adv. p. 98; W.S. Register, p. 142). Charles Hay would be served heir to his aunt Elizabeth on 31 Jan. 1791. Elizabeth, Agnes and their sister Anne (wife of Robert Stephen of Letham, merchant in Montrose) were the daughters of and co-heirs of John Mudie (d. 1728), 4th of Arbikie (or Arbekie), and his wife Magdalen Carnegie (or Carnegy) (d. 1771, aged eighty-nine) (Moodie Book, pp. 118–19; Jervise, i. 322).   Elizabeth Smith’s case is referred to in the Consultation Book as Smith v. Mudie (LPJB 2, p. 398), with the name ‘Mudie’ underlined, signifying that Mudie was the party for whom JB acted. This is presumably the case referred to in the Court of Session Minute Book, Currie-Mackenzie office, Nov. 1759–Aug. 1770 (NRS CS56/4), as William Smith, only son of Robert Smith of Forret, Doctor of Medicine at Montrose v. Elisabeth Moodie, his mother, in which

242

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 242

27/02/23 6:14 PM

14 february 1768 decree for payment of interim aliment was pronounced on 4 July 1769.   Her son William Mudie (or Moodie) Smith (1745–85) – her antagonist in this case – would marry, in 1784, his cousin, Charles Hay’s sister, Magdalen Hay (d. 1823), later Hay-Mudie, eventual heiress of James Hay of Cocklaw, and heiress (after Charles Hay’s death) of Arbikie. He would be served heir to his father on 9 Aug. of this year (Burke’s Landed Gentry, ii. 896 (s.v. ‘Mudie of Pitmuies’); Moodie Book, pp. 118–19; Jervise, i. 322). For background information about the nature of the issues involved in the bitter contestation between the son and the mother, see Answers for Elizabeth Mudie relict of Doctor Robert Smith of Forret, to the Petition of William Smith, only son of the said Doctor Robert Smith (dated 11 Nov. 1769, by Andrew Crosbie) (ESTC T061624). 6. MS. ‘forret, It’. 7. For the ‘old style’ of consultations, see entry for 25 Feb. 1767 and n. 6. 8. MS. ‘This inflamed me . . . looked pretty’ scored off with a modern pen. There is no further reference to Mrs. Dodds in

JB’s surviving records until 24 Aug., when he tells WJT, ‘I have given up my criminal intercourse with Mrs ––––’ (To WJT, 24 Aug. 1768, Corr. 6, p. 242). She would not re-appear until Mar. 1769, when JB would write from Auchinleck to JJ saying that he has done nothing for her ‘these many weeks, which is very wrong’. He encloses a draft for £10 and asks JJ to deliver the money to Alexander Hamilton (1739–1802), surgeon (who would become a noted man-midwife, succeeding Dr. Thomas Young as Professor of Midwifery at Edinburgh University (University of Edinburgh website, ), together with a letter from JB to Hamilton (To JJ, 31 Mar. 1769, Corr. 1, p. 250). The letter to Hamilton asks him to deliver the money to ‘my friend whom you know, and tell her, that my reason for not seeing her for some time, is my resolution to take no part either one way or other, in a certain Dispute. Be so good as inform me particularly of her situation’ (To Alexander Hamilton, 31 Mar. 1769, Corr. 7, p. 159). The nature of the dispute is not known.

Sunday 14 [7] February I sat in all forenoon. Afternoon went to Church.1 Tea at home, then went to the good Doctour’s.2 1. At the New Church in St. Giles’.

2. JB’s uncle, John Boswell.

[Monday 8 February] I cannot say what I did.

[Tuesday 9 February] I have also forgotten what I did, only one day this week, I visited Raybould under sentence of death.

[Wednesday 10 February]

243

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 243

27/02/23 6:14 PM

15 february 1768

[Thursday 11 February]

[Friday 12 February]

[Saturday 13 February]

[Sunday 14 February]

Monday 15 February This day I heard from Mr. Dilly that my Account of Corsica was ready for publication;1 so I ordered Mr. Neill to give out copies in Scotland.2 1. Edin. Even. Courant for this day noted that An Account of Corsica would be published ‘next Thursday’, i.e. 18 Feb. This and later Edinburgh newspaper advertisements (e.g. Cal. Merc. 20 Feb.) noted that it was ‘sold by E. and C. Dilly, London, A. Kincaid and J. Bell, J. Balfour, R. Fleming, A. Donaldson, J. Dickson, W. Drummond, W. Gordon, L. Hunter, W. Gray, W. Millar, and J. Wood, Edinburgh, A. Neil, Haddington, and the other Booksellers in town and country’. An Account of Corsica was published by the London publishing firm of Edward and Charles Dilly (see Introduction, pp. 16–17). This firm ‘would later publish the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and the Life of Johnson. Perhaps these booksellers – liberal and non-conformist – were first attracted by the subject-matter, for they were enthusiastic admirers of John Wilkes, Catherine Macaulay, the North American Patriots, and Liberty’ (Corr. 5, p. xxxv). Most of the correspondence for the firm was carried on by Edward Dilly. The letter which JB received from him on 15 Feb. has not been reported (Corr. 7, p. 20). Letters which Dilly had sent to JB in 1767

show the remarkable degree of JB’s direct involvement in the production and the distribution of the book (see letters of 28 July, 1, 4, 10, 15, 31 Aug., 10, 24 Sept., 13 Oct., 4, 10, 19 Nov. (Corr. 5, pp. 187–88, 191– 93, 196–97, 201–202, 207–208, 216–17, 225–26, 236–37, 248, 251–52)).   Dilly had agreed to pay JB one hundred guineas for the copyright of the book, to be paid three months after publication in London, and had agreed that the first edition be printed in Scotland under JB’s supervision (From Dilly, 28 July 1767, Corr. 5, p. 187). JB chose Robert and Andrew Foulis of Glasgow to print the first edition. ‘The first edition was sold out in six weeks, and a second, hastily printed in London, was advertised for the first of April. This met the demand for a year. The third edition was out on the first day of May 1769, with the announcement that “Mr. Boswell’s Account of Corsica has been so well received by the public that two numerous editions of 3500 copies have been sold within the space of a few months; and the book is so highly esteemed abroad that it has been translated into the French and Dutch languages and

244

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 244

27/02/23 6:14 PM

18 february 1768 printed at Amsterdam and Lausanne” . . . The reviews were not merely long, they were surprisingly laudatory’ (Earlier Years, pp. 356–57). For selected comments and reviews, see Boulton and McLoughlin, Addenda II, pp. 227–32. 2. Adam Neill (d. 1812 (Corr. 7, index, p. 317)), Edinburgh printer. Dilly had had earlier professional dealings with him, and on 13 Oct. 1767 had written asking JB to secure some franked postal covers for Neill’s use, as he was then ‘Printing a large Work for me, and has occasion to send a Proof Sheet now and then’ (Corr. 5, pp. 236–37, 248). On 19 Nov. 1767, Dilly had instructed JB to send him 1,000 copies of An Account of Corsica, and to be safe, send shipments of 500 each on two different vessels: ‘If the Books are well Packt up, by Foulis, they may be sent Directed to Mr. Neill Printer at Edinr. who will take Care to ship them by the first Leith Ship, and Foulis may send 500 by a Carron Ship. You will inform me as near the Time as you can,

when You think it will be finished, and I will Write then to Mr. Neill, how to dispose of the Copies which may be sent to Edinr. for sale’ (Corr. 5, p. 258). However, Robert Foulis, in a letter of 30 Dec. 1767 (Yale MS. C 1319), again indicating the remarkable degree of JB’s involvement in the printing, publishing, marketing and distribution of the work, noted that the number of copies for distribution JB had ‘mention’d [presumably in a letter which is not reported] of 500 only for London, & 1000 for Scotland, is different from what he [i.e. Dilly] had formerly mention’d to us, which was one thousand for London in two different ships. However, we will obey your order, as it is the last, if you are quite sure. It is quite the same to us. We only want to make a complete delivery, and then we order what we have occasion for, on the same footing with the other Booksellers.’ See also Philip Gaskell, A Bibliography of the Foulis Press, 2nd ed., 1986, Appendix B, pp. 396–400.

Tuesday 16 February I was busy with law.

Wednesday 17 February

Thursday 18 February I breakfasted with Lord Hailes & gave him my Book.1 I dined with my father[,] Lord Coalston &c at the Solicitor’s,2 with the Ladies of Cromarty. Lady Augusta[,] the famed Beauty[,] did not strike me.3 I then went to an Ayrshire Ball at Fortune’s. My Book was published this day, & felt my own importance. I danced with the Countess of Craufurd, so opened the Ball. I was quite as I wished to be; only I am positive I had not so high an opinion of myself, as other people had. I look back with wonder on the mysterious & respectful notions I used to have of Authours. I felt that I was still subject to attacks of feverish love; but I also knew that my mind is now firm enough soon to recover its tone. 1. MS. ‘I breakfasted . . . Book’ interlined. That JB had this presentation copy ready to give at breakfast this morning

suggests that he already had copies of his book in hand, ahead of the announced publication date. Dilly had written to

245

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 245

27/02/23 6:14 PM

18 february 1768 JB on 15. Aug. 1767, ‘It is not customary (when an Author is Paid a Consideration for the Copy) to give a Number of Books, nevertheless, half a Dozen Copies of the Common Paper, together with two Copies more on Royal Paper, is at Mr. Boswell’s Service, to give to any of his Friends, and he may order Mr. Foulis to Print off the same accordingly’ (Corr. 5, p. 201). Lord Hailes, who was ‘one of JB’s oldest friends and trusted advisers’, had given JB remarks on the manuscript of An Account of Corsica (see Introduction, p. 16). ‘JB wrote in the preface to Corsica, “I am principally indebted to the indulgence and friendly attention of My Lord Hailes, who under the name of Sir David Dalrymple, has been long known to the world as an able Antiquarian, and an elegant and humourous Essayist” ([Ist ed.,]

pp. xvi–xvii)’ (Corr. 5, p. 200 n. 2). Williamson, front matter, stating the position in 1773/74, gives Lord Hailes’s Edinburgh residence as being in New Street. This was ‘a mansion at 23 New Street, off the north side of the Canongate, on the west side of the street’ (BEJ, p. 46 n. 18). 2. That is, at the house of Henry Dundas, Solicitor-General for Scotland. 3. Lady Augusta Mackenzie (d. 1809) of Cromartie, youngest daughter of George Mackenzie (c. 1702–66), 3rd Earl of Cromartie, later wife of Sir William Murray (1746–1800) of Ochtertyre, Bt. Her mother, Isabella Gordon (d. 1769), was called ‘Bonnie Bell Gordon’. Lady Augusta had four married sisters, but had one sister, Margaret, who did not marry until 21 Mar. 1769 (Comp. Bar. iv. 292; Scots Peer. iii. 80–81, 83).

Friday 19 February I called on Lady Craufurd in the forenoon. I felt that I could easily relapse into dissipation; but I also saw that I was become strong & though when I allowed myself to be indolent, I was carried down the stream, I might if I pleased, swim up against the current.

Saturday 20 February1 I dined at Lord Dundonald’s.2 There had been a coldness between that family & me, & I had not seen them of a long time. All was well again & old ideas of Major Cochrane, my dear Mother &c &c &c revived.3 1. The front page of Cal. Merc. for this day carried JB’s ‘Dedication’ to Paoli. In a letter of 24 Sept. 1767, Dilly had told JB that ‘The Book I think should be inscribed to Paoli. You cannot well flatter him, for he is deserving of the highest Praise’ (Corr. 5, p. 225). The paper also carried a summary of JB’s plan for the work taken from his front matter, and an announcement that ‘We shall next week present our readers with some extracts from this work.’ A lengthy excerpt from the opening chapter appeared in the issue for Mon. 22 Feb., concluding with ‘A further account of this work shall be given in our next.’

2. Thomas Cochrane (1691–1778), 8th Earl of Dundonald. ‘He joined the army in 1713 as a Cornet in the Royal Dragoons, became Fort Major of Fort St Philip in Minorca, returned to Great Britain in 1715 and became Captain of a company in the 27th Regiment of Foot in 1716, was MP for Renfrewshire 1722–7, and Commissioner of Excise for Scotland 1730–64 ([Scots Peer. iii. 358; Sedgwick, i. 561])’ (LPJB 2, p. 292 n. 51). Lord Dundonald was the owner of Culross Abbey House, in the burgh of Culross, on the north side of the Firth of Forth approximately 8 miles to the west of Dunfermline. However, JB’s visit on this

246

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 246

27/02/23 6:14 PM

21 february 1768 occasion was to Lord Dundonald’s Edinburgh residence, which was at ‘Belleville (otherwise known as Clockmill), about one quarter of a mile to the east of the Palace of Holyroodhouse (Lancefield, Plan of Edinburgh and Leith, 1851)’ (BEJ (revised ed. 2013), p. 122 n. 52). Lord Dundonald’s first wife (his cousin Elizabeth Kerr) had died in 1743, and the following year he had married as his second wife Jean Stuart (d. 1808) (sister of Andrew Stuart, W.S., one of the agents on the Hamilton side in the Douglas

Cause), by whom he had eleven sons and a daughter (Scots Peer. iii. 359–60; http://redbookofscotland.co.uk/stewart-of-torrance). ‘The “coldness” may have been occasioned by the Douglas cause, Lord Dundonald being a violent partisan of the Hamilton interest’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 139 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 130 n. 4). 3. Lord Dundonald, who was JB’s maternal great-uncle (Ominous Years, Chart V, p. 378), had been known as Maj. Cochrane before his accession to the title in 1758.

Sunday 21 February In all forenoon. I had dreamt of Raybould under sentence of death. I was gloomy. Afternoon church.1 Tea home, then visited Raybould that my gloomy imagination might be cured by seeing the reality.2 I was shewn up to him by Archibald the soldier who was to be tried for murder.3 The clanking of the iron-room door was terrible.4 I found him very composed. I sat by him an hour & a half by the light of a dim farthing candle. He spoke very properly on religion. I read him the 4 Chapter of the 1 Epistle of John, and lectured5 upon it. On verse 18 I discoursed on fear very appositely6 by an illustration taken from Robert Hay the soldier who was hanged last year. There[,] John[,] said I[,] did he lie quite sunk[,] quite desperate, & neither would eat nor drink, & all for fear[,] just terrour for dying. But the comfortable doctrine of christianity prevents this. I was quite firm, & I was astonished to compare myself now, with myself when a Boy remarkably timorous.7 Raybould seemed wonderfully easy. I therefore talked quite freely to him. ‘But John have you no fear for the immediate pain of dying?’ No said he, I have had none as yet; I know not how it may be at the very moment. But I do think I shall be quite composed. I looked stedfastly at him during this & saw he was speaking truly. One certain sign of his being much at ease was the readiness with which his attention was diverted to any other subject than his own melancholy situation; for when a man is much distrest, he is still fixed in brooding over his calamity. But Raybould talked of his wife’s journey down8 in all its particulars just as if he had been an indifferent ordinary man. He told me when he came first to Scotland, he did not know the difference between an agent & an Advocate. I saw him beginning to smile at his own ignorance. (I considered how amazing it would be if a man under sentence of death should really laugh & with the nicest care of a diligent Student of human nature) I as decently as possible first smiled as he did & gradually cherished the risible exertion till he & I together fairly laughed. How strange! He very calmly examined whether a man dying of sickness or one in his situation was worst. He said one in his situation. I argued that one dying of sickness was worst, because he is weakened & unable to support the fear of death; whereas one in his situation was quite well but for the prospect before him. Raybould however maintained his proposition because he said the man weakened by sickness was brought 247

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 247

27/02/23 6:14 PM

21 february 1768 to a state of indifference. I bid him farewell. It was truly a curious scene. I went & sat a while at the worthy Doctour’s.9 1. At the New Church in St. Giles’. 2. Raybould was held in the Tolbooth. 3. James Archibald, a former soldier at Edinburgh Castle, indicted for murder. At his trial before the High Court of Justiciary on 14 Mar., JB would be one of the four counsel for the defence. Archibald, ‘a workman employed in the stone-quarry near Duddingston’, was charged with ‘the murder of Patrick Lawson, one of his fellow-workmen’ (Scots Mag. Sept. 1767, xxix. 498). Cal. Merc. for Sat. 26 Sept. 1767 had reported that on ‘Thursday night was committed to the tolbooth . . . James Archibald, one of the invalids in the castle of Edinburgh, on suspicion of having murdered, that afternoon, in a field in the parish of Duddingston, on the south side of the Earl of [Abercorn’s] new house, Peter Lawson, a day-labourer, employed in the Earl of [Abercorn’s] improvements at that place.’ A fuller account had appeared in the Oxford Journal of 3 Oct. 1767: ‘On Thursday last, a melancholy Affair happened near Easter Duddingston, about three Miles to the Eastward of this Place: James Archibald and Patrick Lawson, labouring Servants to the Earl of Abercorn, having had some Difference, Archibald attacked Lawson when at Work in a Ditch, and after some Words, unexpectedly grasped Lawson by a Napkin which was about his Neck, and twisted it so hard, as to strangle him; and after he fell, gave him a Blow or two on the Head, which killed him outright.’ The case had first come before the High Court of Justiciary on 14 Dec. 1767, when JB was one of the four counsel for the defence. At that hearing, there was a debate on the relevancy of the indictment at which Andrew Crosbie spoke for the defence. The case was continued to 18 Dec. 1767, at which hearing the court found the indictment ‘relevant to infer the pains of law’ (for which expression, see p. 113 n. 3). The case was then continued on various occasions, written submissions

were lodged for both sides (those for the defence being by Andrew Crosbie), and in Mar. 1768 a new indictment was brought in respect of the same alleged offence. At the hearing on 14 Mar. 1768, the court, as with the first indictment, would find the new indictment relevant to infer the pains of law. The trial then proceeded that day and witnesses were examined. The jury would unanimously find Archibald not guilty (NRS JC3/35, pp. 488–94, 510–16, 554– 626, 629–44; Cal. Merc. 16 Mar. 1768). Some of the reasoning behind the acquittal emerges from the report in Scots Mag. of the trial a year later of Mungo Campbell for fatally shooting the Earl of Eglinton (see p. 222 n. 6). Lord Pitfour, noting that Campbell had been in possession of a firearm, is quoted as stating that this made the case different from Archibald’s. ‘It often happens, that in scuffles an accidental blow will kill a man; and there the law will not find murder . . . We had this lately before us in the case of James Archibald . . . There provocation was pleaded: we had no regard to that, but to there being no intention to kill. The case is very different here. James Archibald used nothing but his hand; but here was a lethal weapon . . . ’ (Scots Mag. Mar. 1770, xxxii. 145). See also Maclaurin for a report of Archibald’s case (pp. 474– 83) and for a note of Lord Pitfour’s opinion in Campbell’s case (pp. 516–18). 4. ‘The iron room was the room in which prisoners awaiting execution were incarcerated’ (BEJ, p. 71 n. 78; see also Arnot, p. 300). 5. JB uses the word ‘lecture’ as in Scottish church usage: a ‘discourse delivered in church of a less formal nature than a sermon and consisting of a running commentary on a passage of Scripture’, with the word as a verb meaning to ‘deliver such a discourse’ (DSL, SND). 6. ‘There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.’

248

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 248

27/02/23 6:14 PM

24 february 1768 7. As a child, JB ‘suffered, it appears, from extreme timidity and infantile dependence on his mother. In his recollections of his earliest childhood, images of fear predominate’ (Earlier Years, p. 16). One of his outlines for the ‘Ébauche de ma vie’ (Sketch of My Life), written for Rousseau, states: ‘esprit casse nulle oble esperance. Effraye

terriblement des esprits. Jusque a 18 Ans ne pouvoit etre seul nuit’ (‘no noble hope. Terribly afraid of ghosts. Up to eighteen could not be alone at night’) (Journ. 1, p. 364; translation in Earlier Years, p. 16). 8. Not identified. 9. That is, at the house of JB’s uncle, John Boswell.

Monday 22 February

Tuesday 23 February

Wednesday 24 February I went to see Raybould’s Execution.1 I was invited up to the window of one a merchant by who knew me.2 I tried to be quite firm & philosophical & imagined Raybould in some future period telling what he felt at his execution. The most dreadful event seems light when past & I made it past by imagination. I felt very little; but when he stood long on the ladder I grew impatient & was beginning to have uneasy sensations.3 I came home. Mr. W. Wilson S.[,]4 Mr. Wal. Scott5 &c dined. At night I was with Lady Craufurd at the Beggar’s Opera which quite relieved any gloom. The Songs revived London ideas & my old intrigues with Actresses who used to play in this opera.6 I was happy in being free of Miss B––––. The farce was the Vintner trickd.7 It8 was curious that after seeing a real hanging I should meet with two mock ones on the stage. I went with Houstoun Stewart & renewed our old acquaintance at Cadie Miller’s9 with oysters & claret. We sat till 2, very agreably. When I came home, I was a little dreary but it went off & I slept well. 1. At the Grassmarket, ‘which was where the corn and livestock markets were held, [and] was the principal place where public executions were carried out’ (BEJ, p. 7). ‘[JB], very early in life, acquired a deeply morbid attitude towards public executions. His own explanation of the matter in after years was that he was afraid of death, and that the spectacle of people dying helped him to quiet and fortify his own mind. The fact is that at times he was under compulsion to attend every execution he heard of and to get as close to the gallows as possible; that so far from being quieted, he suffered afterwards for several days (especially

at night-time) from frightful imaginings, apparently of ghosts’ (Earlier Years, p. 18). 2. MS. Blank spaces after ‘window of one’ and ‘merchant by’. 3. Raybould’s ‘behaviour was decent, and suitable to the occasion’ (Cal. Merc. 24 Feb. 1768). 4. William Wilson, W.S. 5. Walter Scott, W.S. 6. The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay (1685–1732) quickly became and would long remain JB’s favourite play. He especially admired West Digges (?1725–86) in the part of Macheath. According to Pottle’s deductions (Earlier Years, pp. 77, 93, 98,

249

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 249

27/02/23 6:14 PM

24 february 1768 173, 477), JB had an affair in Edinburgh in 1761–62 with the woman who was the partner, and performed as the wife, of James Love (1721–74), stage name of the actor, author and manager James Dance. Her name may have been Catherine de L’Amour (Oxford DNB, s.v. James Dance). (See also LJ 1762–63, p. 335 n. 15, where it is pointed out that Pottle, though doubtless correct in his deductions, is mistaken in thinking ‘Mrs. Love’ to be Dance’s wife, Elizabeth Hooper.) She acted under the name Mrs. Love, was ‘a comic actress of some ability’, and ‘often played Polly to Digges’s Macheath’ (Earlier Years, p. 77). JB was concurrently having an affair with a woman whom he designates in his journal notes only as ‘A’, whom Pottle’s deductions identified as the actress ‘Mrs. Brooke’ (d. 1782) (Earlier Years, pp. 77–78, 82, 173, 478–79). A surviving playbill for a Canongate Theatre production of The

Beggar’s Opera for 22 Feb. 1762 lists Mrs. Brooke in the part of Suky Tawdry (see Somerville, p. 114). 7. The Vintner Tricked, a play by Henry Ward, actor and minor dramatist (fl. 1734–58) (Scullion, p. 95). 8. MS. ‘I’. 9. Miller seems to have been a tavernkeeper, but perhaps he had formerly been a caddie and had retained the designation as a nickname. The caddies were employed ‘chiefly as street-messengers and valets-deplace. A ragged, half-blackguard-looking set they were, but allowed to be amazingly acute and intelligent, and also faithful to any duty intrusted to them’ (Chambers, p. 193). ‘The shabby appearance of the caddies belied their social usefulness; indeed, the remarkably low crime rate in Edinburgh in those days was largely attributed to them’ (BEJ, p. 6; see also Topham, p. 87).

Thursday 25 February My father & I dined at the Marquis of Lothian’s.

Friday 26 February 1 1. On this day JB wrote to Belle de Zuylen in response to her letter of 16 Feb. (for which, see pp. 214–15 n. 1). JB is not dispirited by her letter and writes: ‘To be plain with you my dear friend I want your advice. I am now I think a very agreable man to those who know my merit and excuse my faults. Whether do you think that you and I shall live happier as distant correspondents, or as partners for life?’ (Corr. 7, p. 32). A month later, JB would tell WJT: ‘Do you know my charming Dutchwoman & I have

renewed our correspondence; and upon my soul, Temple, I must have her. She is so sensible so accomplished and knows me so well & likes me so much, that I do not see how I can be unhappy with her. Sir John Pringle is now for it, and this night I write to my Father begging his permission to go over to Utrecht just now. She very properly writes that we should meet without any engagement and if we like an union for life good & well; if not we are still to be friends’ (To WJT, 24 Mar. 1768, Corr. 6, p. 227). See also entry for 24 Mar.

Saturday 27 February Sir Alexander Dick carried me out in his coach to Prestonfield. No other person was there. We were quite happy.1 1. JB’s journal breaks off at this point.

250

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 250

27/02/23 6:14 PM

16 march 1768

Wednesday 16 March1 It is very odd that it is hardly possible to set out upon a journey, without being in confusion. I was so not a little this morning. My worthy friend Johnston2 came and stayed by me while I packed my trunk; the sign of a real friend. He who can stand by a man while he packs his trunk, would attend him to the place of execution were he going to be hanged, for really one packing his trunk and one going to be hanged are pretty much the same company to a friend. My travelling companion was Mr. Robertson near Alloway one of the Contractors for paving the streets of London,3 but who was going thither for the first time. Mr. John Small one of the Macers of the Court of session4 was to ride by us all the way. He could not get a horse this morning; so we took him into the chaise to Haddingtoun,5 where we had a beef-steak, having set out at two o clock. We seemed hearty & easy. Only I whose combustible or rather inflammable soul is allways taking fire, was uneasy at having left Mary [ — ] a pretty lively little girl whom accident had thrown in my way a few days before. She was one of those females who either from wickedness or misfortune are the slaves of profligate men. She was very young and I resolved to try if there was virtue in her; so I left her as many guineas as she said she could live upon till my return. I got two of my friends to promise to go to her and offer her a high bribe to break her engagement to me, and to write me what she did.6 I find I am still somewhat of a Don Quixote; for now am I in love with perhaps an abandoned worthless being; but we shall see. We went to Dunbar at night,7 where we drank the finest small beer I ever tasted in my life,8 & had a good supper & warm punch. 1. ‘To symbolise the importance of his jaunt to London’ in 1768, JB started a new journal. This was ‘the first to be kept in a bound notebook’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 144 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 134 n. 6). This journal, designated ‘J 14’ in the Yale editors’ cataloguing system, occupies a ‘[p]artly filled quarto notebook with leather spine and marbled paper board covers, 70 pages, originally numbered 1–108, but pp. 21–22, 65–70, 73–84, 89–102, 105–08 (19 leaves in all) have been torn out and are missing’ (Catalogue, i. 8–9). 2. JJ. 3. Robertson has not been further identified. ‘[F]rom 1762 to 1766, no fewer than five acts of Parliament finally established an entirely new framework for paving, cleansing and lighting the London streets. Instead of responsibility falling on individual householders, paving commissioners were endowed by parliamentary

grant to begin a large-scale programme of street improvements. Carriageways were laid in flat stone and kennels moved from the centre to the edges; footways were raised above the level of the roadway and regularly paved’ (White, pp. 61–62. See also Webb, pp. 282–84; George, pp. 99–102). The streets were paved with Scottish granite from Aberdeen, in squared blocks with a flat surface, ‘set continuously in parallel lines from curb to curb on a slightly convex surface’ (Webb, p. 284). ‘Foreign visitors to London waxed eloquent over the new conveniences, which became the wonder of the travelled world’ (ibid.). 4. In addition to their other duties, macers were required ‘to cite and apprehend Persons Summarily complained of; imprison advocates’ Servants for unduly keeping up Processes, and to see good Order observed in the session-house by inferior servants and the common people’ (Forbes, pp. ix-x).

251

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 251

27/02/23 6:14 PM

16 march 1768 John Small (d. 1795) was one of four macers (Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 139; Act of Sederunt 12 Nov. 1795, AS, 1790–1800, p. 40). 5. Haddington (about 16 miles to the east of Edinburgh) was the first stage on the East Road route between Edinburgh and London (Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 6). 6. MS. ‘I got two of my friends . . . what she did’ deleted. ‘Mary’ has not been further identified.

7. Dunbar, a coastal town (about 27 miles to the east of Edinburgh), was the second stage on the route (Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 6). 8. The beer was brewed at the Belhaven brewery, near Dunbar, which was founded in 1719 (Scottish Brewing.com website, ). ‘Small’ or ‘table’ beer was also known as ‘Tuppeny’ (for which, see p. 195 n. 4).

Thursday 17 March We set out about half an hour after 4, & went two stages, to Berwick,1 to breakfast. Captain Webster2 came & saw me. The elections were very dead here.3 The Landlord offered any of us a praemium4 to set up as candidate and make a stir. We were obliged to take four horses to Belford;5 but we went all in the chaise. By the way we came to a place called Longbrigend6 where there is an arm of the sea and a river meeting which crosses the road on the sands which we took as easier than the turnpike road. The sea was out; so we had to wait an hour. We played at drawing straws and at odds & evens7 for halfpence. We did not dine but came to Alnwick8 at night, to the house of Turnbull the family of Northumberland’s old Piper[,]9 who gave us many tunes with amazing dexterity. My attention had still been fixed on Mary. It was a moment diverted by a glance from a Girl standing at a door in Alnwick. We supped heartily, & drank warm punch. 1. Berwick (or Berwick-upon-Tweed), Northumberland, at the mouth of the River Tweed (about 53 miles from Edinburgh), was the fourth stage on the route (the third being Old Cambus, Berwickshire (OGS., s.v. Aldcambus), about 37 miles to the east of Edinburgh (Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 6). 2. Capt. James Webster. He was evidently again on leave from his regiment (see p. 132 n. 2). 3. A reference to the elections (during the 1768 general election) in the doublemember constituency of the borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed and perhaps also to the elections in the double-member constituency of the county of Northumberland. The seats in Berwick-upon-Tweed would be won on 19 Mar. by Sir John Hussey Delaval (1728– 1808), Bt. (who had won his seat in 1765 by virtue of extraordinary bribery, threats and promises), and Robert Paris Taylor

(?1741–92) (Namier and Brooke, i. 348–49; ii. 311–12; iii. 518). The county of Northumberland had been a staunch Whig stronghold since 1753, and from then, up to and including 1768, elections in the constituency were uncontested. ‘Throughout this period one of the Members was always recommended by the Earl of Northumberland [Hugh Percy 2nd Earl, created Duke in 1766 (for whom, see p. 339 n. 20)], while the other was the choice of the country gentlemen’ (Namier and Brooke, i. 348). In the 1768 election the candidates were George Shafto Delaval (1703–82), a cousin of John Hussey Delaval, and Sir Edward Blackett (1719–1804), Bt., who would both be duly elected unopposed on 31 Mar. (Namier and Brooke, ii. 94, 310). 4. MS. ‘preemium’ (with the two ‘e’s run together). 5. Belford, a village in Northumberland (about 68 miles from Edinburgh), was

252

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 252

27/02/23 6:14 PM

18 march 1768 the fifth stage on the route (Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 6). 6. Longbridge End, situated between Haggerston Castle to the west and Holy Island to the east. 7. ‘Odds & evens’ is a game of chance ‘played by holding in the closed hand one or two small articles, the opposing player having to guess the number’ (OED, s.v. Odd, 2.d). 8. Alnwick, Northumberland (about 83 miles from Edinburgh), was the sixth stage on the route (Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 6).

9. Joseph Turnbull (d. 1775), celebrated player of the Northumbrian pipes who was appointed Piper to the Countess of Northumberland in 1756. From about 1760, he was the innkeeper at the Angel Inn, Alnwick. ‘In addition to providing hospitality to travellers [he] carried on with the tradition of hosting cock fights . . . [He] died as a result of falling off his horse and fracturing his skull’ (Northumberland Archives website, ).

Friday 18 March We set off very early. Small galloped on first & had breakfast ready for us at Morpeth.1 He had travelled the road a hundred times as Lord Cathcart’s2 Master [of] Household. So he bullied Waiters[,] Postilions & Ostlers & carried us on like smoak. We got to Newcastle about noon.3 I sent for my brother the Lieutenant4 and he carried me to dine where he was boarded, at Dr. Wilson’s.5 The Doctor was not at home. But his Lady a fine, pretty, amiable little woman entertained us.6 I had on my journey an old french black suit; but I here put on my green & gold & made a good figure.7 After dinner the Doctor came in, a worthy sensible man. He shewed me a little essay he had written on the Douglas Cause.8 It was well. But I had already seen so much upon it in a more masterly stile that it did not strike me greatly. My brother & I went & drank tea with old Mr. Aitken the dissenting Clergyman who was my father’s Governour:9 and there much plain old-fashioned cordial conversation past. I then went to my Inn & sent for Mr. Spearman the Attorney.10 He was a young smart talking fellow. He & Dr. Wilson & my brother supt with me. I was pleased to see the kind of people in the north of England. But hasted south. 1. Morpeth, a historic market town in Northumberland (about 289 miles from London), was the seventh stage on the route (Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 6). 2. Charles Schaw Cathcart (1721– 76), 9th Lord Cathcart, aide-de-camp to the Duke of Cumberland at the battle of Fontenoy on 11 May 1745, Col. and Adj.-Gen. of the forces in Scotland 1750, Lt.-Gen. 1760, one of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland 1752–76, High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1755–63 and 1773–76, Governor of Dumbarton Castle

1761–64, knighted (Order of the Thistle) 1763, Lord of the Police 1764–68, Ambassador to the Court of St. Petersburg 1768– 71, later Lord of the Bedchamber 1776 (Scots Peer. ii. 520–22). 3. Newcastle was the eighth stage on the route (Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 6). On his arrival in Newcastle, JB went to an inn known as the ‘Bull and Post Boy’, whose proprietor was Ralph Steel (d. 1775) (Lt. John Boswell’s Journals (Yale MS. C 404:2– 3), 20 Aug. 1767, 18 Mar. 1768 and 12 June 1768; Cal. Merc. 26 Aug. 1767; Newcastle Courant, 8 July 1775).

253

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 253

27/02/23 6:14 PM

18 march 1768 4. John Boswell, Lord and Lady Auchinleck’s second son, who ‘had attended the University of Glasgow ([Addison], entry 1869, dated 14 Nov. 1758) and on 21 Apr. 1760 had joined the Earl of Loudoun’s 30th Regt. of Foot as an ensign’ (Corr. 1, p. 16 n. 11). ‘Following [a mental] illness in 1762–63, he had gone back into military service as first lieutenant in the 21st Regt. of Foot (commission dated 9 Dec. 1763), but had almost at once decided that he wished instead to be a farmer, had got leave of absence and had spent the last months of 1764 in the north of England, supposedly preparing himself for his new way of life. When, early in 1765, the 21st Foot was ordered abroad, he had negotiated to be placed on half pay (Apr. 1765) and had left active service for good. Returning to Newcastle, he had spent most of the next few years there. Although his mental condition was morbid and rendered him incapable of carrying on a profession, John had been for several years usually able to live an independent life and control his personal affairs, as his surviving diaries and papers show. He had lived with various people at or near Newcastle, among them the Rev. Edward Aitken, a dissenting minister who had once been tutor of Lord Auchinleck, and [a] well-known [physician], Dr. John Hall, who kept a private hospital’ (Corr. 1, p. 249 n. 1). John was now staying with another well-known physician, Dr. Andrew Wilson (for whom, see following note). 5. Andrew Wilson (1718–92), a Scottish philosopher and medical writer, who had graduated M.D. from Edinburgh University in 1749 and had become a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1764. He was the son of Rev. Gabriel Wilson (d. 1750), minister of Maxton and Rutherford in the Scottish Borders, and his wife, Rachel Carson (Fasti Scot. ii. 185). He was now practising as a physician in Newcastle, where he had a family connection, his sister Anne (d. 1800) having married Rev. George Ogilvie (d. 1765), minister in Silver Street from 1744 (Fasti

Scot. vii. 516, viii. 723). In 1775 or 1776 he would move to London, where he became consulting physician to the Medical Asylum (Oxford DNB). John Boswell lived with Wilson at various times until Wilson moved to London (Corr. 1, p. 268 n. 8). In Aug. 1771, JB and his wife, Margaret, while on a trip to Northumberland and Durham, would be hospitably hosted by Wilson in Newcastle. JB wrote to JJ from Alnwick that on Friday (23 Aug.) ‘we sent for Dr. Wilson the Physician who came and breakfasted with us, and was very angry with us for not having come first to his house’. Later they ‘supt at Dr. Wilsons . . . Dr. Wilson is truly a Philosopher. He is constantly meditating and prying into the reasons of things and has hit upon many ingenious thoughts. He is a good Physician and is coming into great business. On Saturday we breakfasted at Dr. Wilson’s, and then he shewed us the town . . . We dined at Dr. Wilson’s, and then drove to Durham.’ The following day ‘We . . . drove back again to Newcastle. We put up at Dr. Wilson’s and spent the evening very comfortably.’ JB’s brother John was not here at this time, as JB and Margaret found when they arrived in Newcastle that he ‘was set out for London’ (27 Aug. 1771, Corr. 1, pp. 268–71). 6. Mary Wilson (name ascertained from the baptismal record of their son Thomas on 12 Feb. 1756 (Ancestry, England and Wales, Christening Index, 1530–1980)). She would visit Edinburgh in the summer of this year. John Boswell, in Edinburgh at the same time, in a letter to Andrew Wilson, said that he had earlier written him ‘a line by Mrs. Wilson who I hope would have a safe Journey to Newcastle’. He closed his letter with his ‘best compliments to Mrs. Wilson and your Family’ (c. 13 Aug. 1768, Yale MS. C 410). JB’s letter to JJ of 27 Aug. 1771 (quoted in the preceding note) makes no reference to her. 7. By ‘my green & gold’ JB probably refers to at least part of the outfit which, acquired in Europe on Lord Marischal’s advice as appropriate dress for visiting the German courts (25 May 1764, Yale MS.

254

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 254

27/02/23 6:14 PM

19 march 1768 C 1945), he also wore for his first meeting with Rousseau on 3 Dec. 1764, a ‘coat and waistcoat of scarlet trimmed with gold lace, greatcoat of green camlet with collar and cuffs of fox’s fur, hat with solid gold lace, or at least a lace looked as though it were solid’. He wore it again when sitting to George Willison (for whom, see p. 302 n. 2) for his portrait in Rome in May 1765: ‘a scarlet suit with gold lace and a sage-green cloak trimmed with brown fox’ (Earlier Years, pp. 162, 221). It can be seen in Willison’s portrait, which was bequeathed in 1913 to the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland, and reproduced on the front jacket of Earlier Years (Journ. 1, pp. 257, 261 n. 27). 8. For the Douglas Cause, see Introduction, pp. 20–29. 9. Rev. Edward Aitken (for whom, see n. 4 above). It is not precisely known when he served as Lord Auchinleck’s boyhood tutor, but it will have been in Edinburgh after 1719, as Lord Auchinleck reports of himself that ‘he was educated at Auchinleck till he was twelve years of Age’; that John Key ‘Afterward Min[iste]r of Coyltoun a devout good man was his Governour’; and that at twelve he was taken to Edinburgh ‘intended for the High School’, but was ‘put to’ the ‘Colledge’ (i.e. the University of Edinburgh) (Auch. Fam. Memoirs). (John Key (d. 1748) had been licensed by the presbytery of Ayr in June 1717, called in Aug. 1722, and ordained to Coylton in Feb. 1723 (Fasti Scot. iii. 21).)

Aitken was admitted in 1736 to Castlegarth, which was formed in Newcastle ‘in 1702 by secessionists from Close Gate Meeting . . . A church was built in 1705 near the Castle Gate.’ He died ‘about 1771’ (Fasti Scot. vii. 515–16). 10. John Spearman (b. 1737 (Ancestry, England and Wales, Christening Index, 1530– 1980)), attorney, a member of the longestablished family of Spearman of Preston, Northumberland. Son of George Spearman of Preston (1710–53) and his first wife, Eleanor (Anderson), and a younger brother of Edward Spearman (d. 1762) of Preston (Craster, chart, pp. 346–47). Newcastle newspaper notices in the 1760s show him ‘in the Bigg-market, Newcastle upon Tyne’ (Newcastle Courant, 6 June 1761), then as Mr. Spearman, ‘Attorney at Law, near the White Cross, Newcastle’ (Newcastle Courant, 28 Apr. 1764). In Oct. of this year he would be elected clerk to the Worshipful Company of Barber Surgeons in Newcastle (Newcastle Courant, 15 Oct. 1768). In a notice in respect of the Free Burgesses and Freeholders of Newcastle upon Tyne in Nov. 1769, he refers to himself as Secretary of the Committee of Stewards, giving his address as ‘in the Oat Market’ (Newcastle Courant, 18 Nov. 1769). It is probable, given JB’s dealings here with those who had care of his brother John (Andrew Wilson, M.D., and Rev. Edward Aitken), that Spearman handled the necessary legal arrangements.

Saturday 19 March Small acquitted himself so nobly, that Mr. Robertson & I constituted him Lord President, & we were the court of session. He was very droll. ‘Come My Lords, we have done a great deal of business. Tomorrow your Lordships have a church cause. (That was to see the Minster at York.) We shall make a good session of it.’ We got to York at night,1 & put up at Bluitt’s Inn.2 We were dusty bustling fellows & no sooner was our baggage taken off, than we posted to the Theatre.3 We went into the back seat of one of the boxes4 & indeed there was a pretty company. I loved to see so many genteel people in their own county town, in place of crowding to London. The Play was False Delicacy,5 & the farce a Peep behind the curtain.6 Wilkinson the Mimick played,7 & several of the Performers did very well. We 255

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 255

27/02/23 6:14 PM

19 march 1768 returned to our Inn & had an excellent supper, the President encouraging the court to eat heartily. I never saw a better Inn. The waiters had all one Livery [ — ] brown coats & scarlet vests. We had hitherto been raised very early; but we now resolved to take sufficient repose for a night. Upon my word eating drinking & sleeping are matters of great moment. 1. York was not one of the regular stages on the East Road route. After Newcastle, the next five stages were normally Durham, Darlington, Northallerton, Boroughbridge and Wetherby. It seems that JB and his fellow travellers decided to take a diversion from the normal route by visiting York. 2. A much-frequented inn, ‘of great Resort, though without a Sign’, in the street called Lendal. The innkeeper was William Bluitt (d. 1798), who also kept stables ‘sufficient for 200 Horses or more’ in the Mint Yard (HACY, ii. 373). He would later serve as an Alderman, and as Lord Mayor of York in 1788, and died ‘in the 66th year of his age’ (Leeds Intelligencer, 9 Apr. 1798). 3. A theatre, known as the New Theatre, in the Mint Yard, was built in 1744. A larger theatre (said to have had a capacity of about 550), built on the same site, had opened in 1765. The York Courant of 8 Jan. 1765 claimed that it was ‘by far the most spacious in Great Britain, Drury Lane and Covent Garden excepted, and for Convenience and Elegance it is thought to be equal, if not superior, to either of them’. Each year, from late December/early January until May, a circuit company performed there three nights a week – Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday – and ‘were allowed to be as good as any out of London’. Tate Wilkinson (1739–1803), actor and theatre manager, was one of the managers from 1766 until 1770, when he became the sole manager. The period of his management is said to have been the York circuit’s ‘golden

age’. In 1769, the theatre would be granted a royal patent and would become known as the Theatre Royal (Fitzsimmons, pp. 169– 72, 175–76; HACY, ii. 169; York Theatre Royal website, ; York Civic Trust website, ; Oxford DNB). 4. The charge for a box was 2s. 6d. (Fitzsimmons, p. 172). 5. By Hugh Kelly (1739–77), Irish writer and attorney. The play, a ‘sentimental comedy’, had only opened on 23 Jan. of this year, at Drury Lane, one of three new mainpieces put on by David Garrick (1717–79) this season (Lond. Stage, IV. iii. 1267, 1307). Although initially successful, it would later be performed only sporadically (Oxford DNB). See also journal entry for 26 Mar. and n. 25). 6. By Garrick himself. First performed at Drury Lane on 23 Oct. of the preceding year (Lond. Stage, IV. iii. 1285). 7. Tate Wilkinson (for whom, see n. 3 above). Wilkinson was renowned for ‘his satiric imitations of other actors and actresses. He would deliver a short speech, giving each line in imitation of a different performer, an ability calculated to be better received in London than the provinces, where the stars were better known’ (Fitzsimmons, p. 172). JB had first seen him perform in London on 20 June 1763, in The Minor, by Samuel Foote (1720–77), and found him ‘a most admirable Mimic’ (LJ 1762–63, pp. 246–47).

Sunday 20 March After a long sleep & a copious breakfast, we went & saw the Cathedral.1 It is a prodigiously noble Gothick edifice. Small & Robertson stayed all the time of 256

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 256

27/02/23 6:14 PM

20 march 1768 service. But I slipt away to a coffeehouse where I fell into conversation with a Sir George (I believe Armitage)2 about Corsica. He talked very warmly for them & seemed to know a good deal about them. I began to think he must have learnt his knowledge of me. So I asked him if the Corsicans had any Seaports? ‘O yes sir,3 said he very good ones. Why[,] Boswell’s Account of Corsica tells you all that.’ Sir! said I what is that? Why Sir said he a Book just now published. By an officer in that service, Sir? said I. No said he. I have not the pleasure of being acquainted with the Gentleman; but Mr. Boswell is a Gentleman who was abroad & who thought he would pay a visit to Corsica & accordingly went thither and had many conversations with Paoli (Pioli he pronounced it) and he has given its history and a full account of every thing about the Island, and has shewn that Britain should make an alliance with Corsica. But Sir said I can we believe what he says? Yes Sir, said Sir George the book is authentick and very accurate. I was highly pleased. About 12 we set out, having first seen the Assembly-room4 which is really very noble with columns all round it & a spacious passage with lifters behind each box for Gentlemen to get in & then let them down & sit behind the Ladies. I call the seats between each column boxes. I lost Mary in the crowd at York, but I found her again upon the road. How strange is this! the Authour of the Account of Corsica the sport of a frivolous passion. Shall my mind ever be all sollid & rational. Yes. A room which is hung with the slightest chintz & gaudiest paper, may by & by be hung with substantial velvet or even thick arras hangings with scripture-stories wrought upon them. My walls are good so they will bear any sort of hangings. Often have they been substantially hung. But as yet I have changed my furniture as whim suggested. Small insisted we should dine at Ferrybridge5 at the Inn of his old acquaintance Landlord Lowe.6 We did so, and were very jolly. Lowe had travelled in Italy with the Marquis of Rockingham;7 but had not weakened a bit his honest old english bluffness. This was the only dinner our President allowed us upon the journey. He was our Purser, & studied œconomy as well as dispatch. Lowe was very desirous to see my Corsica. Many a curious Reader I have. We went at night to the Inn on Barnaby Muir.8 We were now jumbled into old acquaintance. I felt myself quite strong and exulted when I compared my present mind with my mind some years ago. Formerly my mind was quite a lodging house for all ideas who chose to put up there; so that it was at the mercy of accident for I had no fixed mind of my own. Now my mind is a house where though the street rooms and the upper floors are open to strangers yet there is allways a settled family in the back parlour & sleeping closet behind it; & this family can judge of the ideas which come to lodge. This family! this Landlord let me say, or this Landlady, as the mind & the Soul are both she. I shall confuse myself with Metaphor. Let me then have done with it. Only this more. The ideas [ — ] my lodgers [ — ] are of all sorts. Some gentlemen of the law who pay me a great deal more than others. Divines of all sorts have been with me, & have even disturbed me. When I first took up house, presbyterian Ministers used to make me melancholy with dreary tones.9 Methodists next shook my passions.10 Romish Clergy filled me with solemn ideas, and although their statues and many moveable ornaments are gone, yet they drew some pictures upon my 257

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 257

27/02/23 6:14 PM

20 march 1768 walls, with such deep strokes, that they still remain. They are indeed only agreable ones.11 I had Deists for a very short while. But they being Scepticks were perpetually alarming me with thoughts that my walls were made of clay, & could not last; so I was glad to get rid of them.12 I am forced to own that my rooms have been occupied by women of the town, & by some Ladies of abandoned manners. But I am resolved that by degrees there shall be only decent people and inocent gay lodgers. 1. ‘Above ground York Minster is a cathedral almost exclusively Gothic, and it tells us a more consistent and complete story of the Gothic styles than any other cathedral. Between c. 1230 and c. 1472 every stage is represented, all of the highest quality’ (Pevsner and Neave, p. 126). The choir is 102 ft high and is ‘exceeded in height in England only by Westminster Abbey at 103 ft’ (ibid., p. 128). 2. Sir George Armytage (1734–83) of Kirklees Park, Yorkshire, Bt., M.P. for York 1761–68 (Comp. Bar. v. 84; Namier and Brooke, ii. 27–28). 3. MS. The stroke after ‘Sir’ appears to be joined on to the apostrophe in ‘Boswell’s’ below. 4. The magnificent Assembly Rooms, in Blake Street, designed by Richard Boyle (1694–1753), 3rd Earl of Burlington, had been built between 1730 and 1735. ‘Probably the earliest neo-classical building in Europe, The Assembly Rooms proved to be one of the most influential pieces of architecture of the early 18th century’ (York Conservation Trust website, ). The Great Assembly Room, a reconstruction of an ‘Egyptian Hall’ as described by the Roman architect Vitruvius, has Corinthian columns on all sides, ‘painted brownish-yellow and marbled’, and the whole ‘is festive yet nobly restrained by operating with a minimum of motifs’ (Pevsner and Neave, p. 197). 5. Ferrybridge, a village in west Yorkshire by the river Aire, was the twelfth stage on the normal route (Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 6).

6. The White Swan, Ferrybridge, described in 1770 as ‘Very good, and reasonable’ (Young, iv. 589). Its proprietor was John Lowe (d. 1778) (Ancestry, burial record (Brotherton, St. Edward the Confessor), West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1512–1812; trade card held by British Museum, ). 7. Charles Watson-Wentworth (1730– 82), 2nd Marquis of Rockingham, Prime Minister (as First Lord of the Treasury), 1765–66 and 1782 (Oxford DNB). As a young man (and as Earl of Malton) he ‘spent nearly two years in Italy’. He left England in or about Oct. 1748, visiting Turin, Milan, Bologna, Siena, Florence, Lucca, Leghorn, Siena (again), Rome, Naples and Rome (again), with his last place of call being Venice, in May 1750. ‘His tour was remarkable for the sculpture he acquired for Wentworth Woodhouse, the Yorkshire house which his father [Thomas Watson-Wentworth (1693–1750), 1st Marquis of Rockingham] was then enlarging’ (Ingamells, p. 632; see also Leonard, pp. 113–15). 8. Barnby Moor (or Barnby-muir), a village in Nottinghamshire, was the fourteenth stage on the normal route (the thirteenth being Doncaster) (Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 6). The inn at which JB and his party called is uncertain. Newspaper advertisements of the 1760s for ‘Flying Post Coaches’ on the ‘London, Stamford, Doncaster and York’ route, which name ‘John Lowe, Swan, Ferrybridge’, name the route’s inn at Barnby Moor as the Rising Stag, proprietor

258

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 258

27/02/23 6:14 PM

20 march 1768 Richard Nelson (e.g. Leeds Intelligencer, 19 June 1764). A newspaper report in 1770 mentions an inn named The Bell, ‘kept by Mrs. Bingley’ (Derby Mercury, 7 Sept. 1770). In 1770, Young described an inn here, whose proprietor was ‘Mr. Smeathman’, as ‘Very civil, and very cheap’ (Young, p. 588). 9. For JB’s recollection of being taken to Presbyterian churches as a child, see pp. 111–12 n. 9. He ‘was particularly miserable when attending services at the Tolbooth Kirk in St Giles’ [in Edinburgh], the very thought of which brought into his mind “dreary . . . ideas” and “gloomy feelings” [Journ. 22 Dec. 1762, LJ 1762–63, p. 61]’ (BEJ, p. 15). 10. By the reference to ‘Methodists’, JB ‘must have had in mind more than one man’s teaching. Perhaps he acquired and read the standard Methodist tracts, and then tried to observe in his private devotions the extended periods of Scripture-reading, prayer, and self-examination which the Methodists practised in their societies. His mother, indeed, may have been the effective evangelist. She appears to have been interested in [George] Whitefield [the great Methodist evangelist] as early as 1741, and the “strong conversion” which she urged on him as a child sounds like the distinctively Methodist doctrine of the new birth. The details must remain conjectural, but the essence of his “Methodism” is clear enough: he fled from the paralyzing rationalism of metaphysics and logic into a fervid religion of the heart and salvation by faith’ (Earlier Years, p. 33). 11. Although there is a certain mystery about the whole affair, Pottle has speculated that in 1760, while studying at Glasgow University, JB fell in love with an actress in Edinburgh, Mrs. Cowper, who was a devout Roman Catholic, and JB made it known to her that he was attracted to her religion. ‘She [it would appear] referred him to her priest in Edinburgh, who gave [JB] some Roman Catholic literature which he studied at Auchinleck, no doubt much to

his father’s discomfiture, for not only did Lord Auchinleck hold bigoted prejudices against Catholicism, he was also well aware that conversion to that religion would, among other things, have barred [JB] from entry into the legal profession and would have prevented him from legally succeeding to the family estate at Auchinleck . . . However, in spite of his father’s solicitations, it seems that [JB] wrote to his father at the end of February 1760 to advise him that he found Roman Catholicism so persuasive that he was intending to adopt that faith and was even considering becoming a monk or priest. When his father responded – perhaps by ordering him to come to Edinburgh – [JB] resolved to make a dash for London’ (BEJ, p. 19; see also Earlier Years, pp. 45–46 and 569–74). ‘On arrival in London, he took up cheap lodgings and got himself introduced to a priest at the Bavarian chapel, where “with a wonderful enthusiasm” [Journ. 2 Apr. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 114] he observed for the first time the celebration of mass and was received into the Roman Catholic Church. He continued to contemplate entering a monastery with a view to becoming a monk, but this scheme came to an end when he made the acquaintance of Samuel Derrick [1724–69], “a dingy fifth-rate man of letters” [Earlier Years, p. 47], who showed him London “in all its variety of departments, both literary and sportive” [Life i. 456 (28 July 1763)]’ (BEJ, p. 20). JB later referred to him as ‘a little blackguard pimping dog’ (Journ. 28 Mar. 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 184). 12. In the ‘Ébauche de ma vie’ (Sketch of My Life) written for Rousseau, JB wrote that when he fled to London in 1760 ‘Milord — me fit Deiste. Je me livrous aux plaisirs sans borne. J’etois dans une delire de joye’ (‘My Lord –– made me a deist. I gave myself up to pleasure without limit. I was in a delirium of joy’) (Journ. 1, p. 357; translation in Earlier Years, p. 4). The Lord referred to is presumably Alexander Montgomerie, 10th Earl of Eglinton.

259

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 259

27/02/23 6:14 PM

21 march 1768

Monday 21 March We started betimes. We breakfasted at .1 Small as President said ‘Come, your Lordships have the petition of the Landlord, praying to put you into a newwash’d room. Refuse.’ He was highly comical; and Robertson was an excellent hand to laugh at his jokes. He had gotten his hair oiled. He said it was to keep the dust out of it. Robertson laughed for near half an hour at this. I was now become quite composed, and never spoke for speaking’s sake or was uneasy because I was silent. The truth is, I am now conscious of having attained to a superiour character, and so rest satisfied. Robertson had read my Corsica, & could tell a good deal about it. He sung pretty well: And in the chaise when he thought I was not minding him he hummed an amazing number of tunes. This morning his musick took an exceedingly droll turn. He sung Blest as th’ imortal Gods is he, to the tune of Black Joake.2 Much did I inwardly laugh. N.B. It will do nobly for Brigadier Bluster in my comedy.3 We came at night to Bigilswade, having travelled this day 105 miles.4 We had an admirable supper. After my former sufferings from bad health & low spirits, I exulted in my present vigour and cheerfullness. 1. MS. Blank space after ‘breakfasted at’. The stage after Barnby Moor (about 10 miles further on) was Tuxford, a village in Nottinghamshire. The next two stages after that were Newark and Grantham (Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 6). 2. ‘Bless’d as the immortal gods is he’ is from a translation by Ambrose Philips of a fragment of an ode by Sappho (Pastorals, Epistles, Odes, and other Original Poems, Dublin, 1768, p. 148). ‘The Coal-black Joke is an English air associated with very inde-

cent words’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 148 n. 3, McGraw-Hill p. 139 n. 4). 3. ‘So far as is known, this comedy was never written’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 149 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 139 n. 5). 4. Biggleswade, in Bedfordshire, was six stages away from London. Edin. Alm. 1769, p. 6, gives the distance between Barnby Moor and Biggleswade as 103 miles. After Biggleswade, the last five stages before London were Baldock, Stevenage, Welwyn, Hatfield and Barnet (ibid.).

Tuesday 22 March Mary began to fade.1 I thought of marriage, & was determined to have a good match, as I was become so agreable and so happy a man. Miss Bosville[,] my Yorkshire Beauty,2 Mademoiselle de Zuylen[,] my Utrecht Bel esprit and friend[,]3 were both before me. Yet still I had no determined purpose. About 2 we arrived at London, & put up at the Star & garter in Bond-street.4 The streets & squares of the Metropolis with all the hurry & variety struck me to a certain degree; but by no means as they had once done; and I contentedly felt myself an Edinburgh Advocate. Our Lord President who had made us live with œconomy upon the road, finding that of 29 guineas set apart for our expences there remained 2 would needs conclude the Session with a jovial repast. Accordingly we had a cod, with oyster & shrimp sauce, some other dishes and three bottles of the best claret I ever drank. Prentice & Rowden the two Landlords5 were called in to take a glass, and in short we were great men. Upon the whole, it was as good a journey as ever was 260

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 260

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 march 1768 made, and as in all other scenes, though words do but imperfectly preserve the ideas, yet such notes as I write are sufficient to make the impressions revive, with many associated ones. What should there be in this house but a club every tuesday called the Roman Club, consisting of Gentlemen who were at Rome the same year I was;6 and who should be up stairs alone but my friend Consul Dick.7 I sent to him, & he came down immediatly. We embraced and in a few words renewed our covenant of cordiality. I then got into a hackney-coach, & drove to Mr. Russel’s[,] upholsterer[,]8 half moon-street Piccadilly,9 where I had admirable lodgings. After unpacking my trunk, I sallied forth, like a roaring Lion after girls, blending philosophy & raking. I had a neat little lass in armour,10 at a tavern in the strand.11 I then went to the Consul’s, & supt, & was quite hearty. 1. In a letter to JJ dated 10 June, JB would write: ‘I am sorry to find that there is not a spark of virtue in Mary’ (Corr. 1, p. 238). 2. Elizabeth Diana Bosville. 3. Belle de Zuylen. 4. The Star and Garter, a tavern in New Bond Street (Lond. Signs, Typewritten Notes, Vol. 16, no. 13778 (STA 13771 to THO 14513)), not to be confused with the fashionable Star and Garter tavern in Pall Mall (for which, see Lond. Past and Present, iii. 305). 5. John Prentice and Robert Rowden, in newspaper notices in Nov. 1766 announced that they, formerly employed at ‘the Thatched House Tavern, St. James’s-street’, had now ‘opened a House late in the Occupation of Lord Archibald Hamilton [(1673–1754), naval officer and politician (Sedgwick, ii. 98)], in New Bond Street, near Brook Street, for a Tavern, by the Sign of the Star and Garter’ (London Evening Post, 20–22 Nov. 1766). Some months later, the premises added ‘two new additional elegant rooms, for the accommodation of large companies’ (Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, 21 Mar. 1767). 6. This club, called the Romans, was founded by Edward Gibbon, and its distinguished membership, which met weekly, was made up of ‘those who had made the tour of Italy’. Gibbon had been in Rome from 1764 to 1765 (Oxford DNB; see also

Allen, p. 285). JB had been in Rome from 16 to 25 Feb. and 24 Mar. to 14 June 1765 (Grand Tour II, Heinemann pp. 52–54, 62–93, McGraw-Hill pp. 50–52, 59–89). 7. Sir John Dick. 8. Russel the upholsterer has not been further identified. 9. Half Moon Street ‘took its name from an inn which stood at the corner, facing Piccadilly’, and ‘consisted of respectable houses of the middle class’ (Old and New Lond. IV. ii. 291). It is believed that the building of the street commenced in about 1730 (Lond. Past and Present, ii. 181). ‘The Half Moon was still standing in 1780, but disappeared not long afterwards’ (Bebbington, p. 159). 10. That is, with a condom. ‘Condoms, available since the late seventeenth century, were used more as a preventative against disease than pregnancy . . . Despite their obvious utility, however, condoms were rarely carried by the common London prostitute, no doubt because they were expensive and hard to find’ (Cruickshank, p. 209). On this occasion, JB probably provided his own condom (see, e.g., Journ. 17 May 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 223). The condom may have been one of ‘Mrs Phillips’s famed New Engines’, which were ‘condoms made of sheep’s gut or bladder and secured to the male member by means of an elegant ribbon’ (Cruickshank, p. 209). Alternatively, the condom may very well have been supplied by a Mrs. Perkins, another leading

261

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 261

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 march 1768 purveyor, who operated from the Green Canister in Half Moon Street (Peakman, p. 25). However, the Half Moon Street from which Mrs. Perkins operated was not the same street as the one in which JB lodged,

but was off the north side of the Strand, near Covent Garden (Cruickshank, p. 210; Old and New Lond. IV. ii. 291). 11. MS. ‘like a lion . . . tavern in the strand’ scored off with a modern pen.

Wednesday 23 March The Consul had provided me not only good lodgings; but a good servant. His name was Antony Mudford, a Somersetshire lad who had served his time to a hairdresser.1 I gave him a guinea a week, for every thing. I called on Lord Mountstuart.2 But he was out of town. I waited on the Duke of Queensberry, for ten minutes, as he had to dress to go to court. He received me well, and assured me that Mr. Douglas would run no risk.3 I had this morning been at Tyburn,4 seeing the execution of Mr. Gibson the Attorney for forgery,5 and of Benjamin Payne for highway robbery.6 It is a curious turn.7 But I never can resist seeing executions.8 The Abbé du Bos ingeniously shews that we have all a strong desire of having our passions moved;9 and the interesting scene of a man with death before his eyes, cannot but move us greatly. One of weak nerves is overpowered by such spectacles. But by thinking & accustoming myself to them, I can see them quite firmly, though I feel compassion. I was on a scaffold close by. Payne was a poor young man of 19. He was pale as death, & half a corpse before the rope was put round his neck.10 Mr. Gibson came in a coach, with some of his friends; and I declare I cannot conceive a more perfect calmness & manly resolution than his behaviour. He was drest in a full suit of black[,] wore his own hair cut round and a hat, was a man about fifty, and as he drove along, it was impossible to perceive the least sign of dejection or gloom about him. He was helped up on the cart. The rope was put round his neck, and he stood with the most perfect composure, eat a sweet orange, & seemed rationally devout during prayers, by Mr. Moore the ordinary of Newgate who is really a good man, and most earnest in the duties of his sad office, which I think a very important one.11 Stephen Roe the last ordinary, was but a rough-spun blade.12 Never did I see death without some horrour, but in the case of Mr. Gibson. It seemed a very easy matter. I allways use to compare the conduct of malefactors, with what I suppose my conduct might be. I believe I confounded the people about me, by my many reflections. I affected being shocked, that punishment might have an effect on their minds; though it had none upon my own. I never saw a man hanged, but I thought I could behave better than he did, except Mr. Gibson, who I confess, exceeded all that I could ever hope to shew of easy and steady resolution. I run about all the forenoon, & got to Mr. Dilly’s about three.13 It was comfortable to find myself in the shop where my book was published, & from the great connection between Authour and Bookseller, I was very kindly received. Mr. Dilly made me acquainted with his brother Mr. Charles a good tall smartish civil bowing young man, quite of the city form, and to his sister Miss Dilly a neat little, well behaved young Lady, smart too, not very pretty but with a good air & a handsom headress, she appeared very well.14 Dinner was over, but 262

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 262

27/02/23 6:14 PM

23 march 1768 I had some slices of good roast mutton & potatoes, & excellent beer. Then we drank a glass of port, & were like blood relations. A Mr. Clayton a Gentleman of £1500 a year & a good house about ten miles from London was there. He lives at Messrs. Dillys when he comes to town; & they go & visit him.15 Mr. Mayo a dissenting Clergyman came in.16 I observed I was introduced with great ceremony, like one whose character was high. We went to Guildhall17 to see the poll for members.18 It was really grand. Harley Lord Mayor,19 Beckford[,]20 Trecothick[,]21 Sir Richard Glyn,22 Mr. Deputy Paterson23 and Mr. Wilkes,24 all stood upon the hustings[,] that is to say a place raised by some steps, at one end of the room. They had true London countenances. I cannot describe them. It was curious for me to look at Wilkes here, & recollect my scenes with him, at Rome, Naples & Paris.25 The confusion & the noise of the mob roaring Wilkes & Liberty were prodigious. I met here Mr. Herries26 and Sir William Forbes,27 & after having had enough of the confusion, I went to them, & drank a glass of claret. They shewed me my Corsican gun & pistols. But the Dog had broken loose, & was running about town;28 Thomas Mr. Herries’s servant & Will the Butcher’s man & I29 went & patroled an hour in the Borough;30 but did not see him. I returned by Dilly’s & drank tea. Drs. Sanders31 & Smith32 were there. I found it to be a very hospitable house; In the strand I inquired at the girls for a Miss Simson33 whom I had known formerly. One of them very obligingly went with me to a Miss Simson’s. But she was not the same. However they both seemed good-natured & I sat & drank some port with them & then tost up which I should make my Sultana. Luckily the lot fell on my obliging conductress. I however was armed.34 1. JB would explain to WJT that he needed a London servant because ‘Poor Thomas [Edmondson] was ill & I was obliged to leave him in Scotland’ (14 May, Corr. 6, p. 235). Anthony Mudford (1745– 99) was baptised on 5 May 1745, at Orchard Portman, Somerset, son of Anthony Mudford and ‘Ann’ (Ancestry, Somerset Heritage Service; Taunton, Somerset, England; Somerset Parish Records, 1538–1914; Reference Number: D/P/orch.p/2/1/2), and was thus at this time twenty-two years old. He had been apprenticed in Dec. 1762 to Richard Chapple, ‘Barber &c’, in Taunton (Ancestry, Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices’ Indentures, 1710–1811). On 2 July (soon after JB’s departure for Edinburgh on 9 June), he would marry, by licence, Mary Ann Russell, at the Parish Church of St. George, Hanover Square, London (Ancestry, City of Westminster Archives Centre; London, England; Westminster Church of

England Parish Registers; Reference STC/ PR/1/16). In his will (proven on 26 July 1799) he is described as ‘peruke maker’ (i.e. a wig-maker) (Ancestry, The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Series PROB 11; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 1327). 2. John Stuart (1744–1814), Viscount Mountstuart, later (1792) 4th Earl and (1796) 1st Marquis of Bute, eldest son of the former Prime Minister, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute. ‘JB had first met him in Rome on [24] Feb. 1765 (Notes[, 25 Feb.]) and, at Mountstuart’s invitation, they had travelled together until Mountstuart was called home [by his father] while they were in Venice (Notes, 3 June–27 July 1765). They quarrelled frequently, but shortly before they parted Mountstuart admitted that he would miss JB “on the road” (Notes, 23 July 1765). For an account of JB’s relationship with Mountstuart, see Pol. Car., pp. 23–27’

263

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 263

27/02/23 6:14 PM

23 march 1768 (Corr. 5, pp. 13–14). Mountstuart was M.P. for Bossiney 1766–76, and would serve as a Privy Councillor from 1779, envoy to Turin 1779–83 and ambassador to Spain 1783, 1795–96 (Scots Peer. ii. 305–06; Namier and Brooke, iii. 502–03). 3. The Duke of Queensberry was a guardian of Archibald Douglas (1748– 1827), principal in the Douglas Cause (Corr. 5, p. 72 n. 10). Archibald Douglas’s appeal to the House of Lords against the Court of Session’s judgment of July 1767 in favour of the Duke of Hamilton would be decided on 27 Feb. 1769 when the House of Lords found in favour of Douglas. The Duke of Queensberry’s residence at which JB called was presumably Queensberry House, Burlington Gardens (Lond. Past and Present, iii. 424 (s.v. Uxbridge House)). Queensberry was a Privy Councillor and had been appointed Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland in 1761 and Lord JusticeGeneral in 1763 (Scots Peer. vii. 144). During JB’s visit to London in 1762–63 he had called on Queensberry in the hope that the Duke might help to secure him a commission in the Guards. ‘The Duke received [JB] on 2 December [1762] and did so “with the greatest politeness” [Journ. 2 Dec. 1762, LJ 1762–63, p. 24], but he told [JB] that although he would try to get him a commission he would find it very difficult to accomplish. After two weeks of anxious waiting [JB] received a disappointing letter in which Queensberry informed him that he was convinced that [JB]’s aim of getting into the Guards was “a fruitless pursuit” [letter dated 22 Dec. 1762, Corr. 9, p. 344]’ (BEJ, p. 27). ‘A longstanding courtier, [Queensberry] had served the courts of the first two Georges 1720–29, and even after a contretemps in 1729 with George II over his duchess’s patronage of Gay’s Polly which caused him to resign the title of Vice-Admiral of Scotland, he continued to serve the House of Hanover at the Court of Frederick, Prince of Wales 1733–51 . . . Because he was considered a friend to both George III and the King’s former tutor and

current favourite, Lord Bute, Queensberry was thought to have great influence’ (Corr. 9, pp. 255–56 n. 1). 4. The site of the famous Tyburn gallows, where public executions had been carried out since at least the time of King Henry IV (reigned 1399–1413) (Lond. Past and Present, iii. 413). At this time, the gallows stood in ‘the centre of the southern extremity of Edgeware Road’ (Phillips, p. 259). The last execution at Tyburn would be in 1783 (Lond. Past and Present, iii. 417). 5. James Gibson, who had been an attorney in London in the firm of Messrs. Francis and Gibson, Lincoln’s Inn, had been indicted for forging a document purporting to be an office copy of a certificate by the Accountant General in the Court of Chancery with intent to defraud William Hunt, who had been appointed receiver to an estate. The forged document stated that Hunt had paid into the Bank of England the sum of £437 13s. 7d. to the account of the Accountant General whereas no such sum had been paid. At a trial at the Old Bailey on 16 Jan. 1766, the jury had found Gibson guilty of the facts set out in the indictment, but his counsel had objected that Gibson had not committed an offence within the Act of Parliament on which the indictment was founded. The court had therefore made a ‘special verdict’ postponing judgment pending legal submissions on the matter (Old Bailey Proceedings (version 8.0, 07 June 2018), January 1766, trial of James Gibson (t17660116-32) and January 1766 (s1766116-1)). On 24 Feb. 1768, after legal argument, Gibson had been informed that the judges had unanimously found that he was guilty of the facts charged in the indictment, and he had been sentenced to death (Old Bailey Proceedings (version 8.0, 07 June 2018), February 1768 (s176802241) and February 1768 (o17680224-1)). 6. Benjamin Payne had been indicted for two separate offences, one for putting Moses Solomon (a dealer in watches) in corporal fear and danger of his life on the king’s highway, and taking from him a

264

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 264

27/02/23 6:14 PM

23 march 1768 silver watch worth 40s., and the other for robbing Hugh James on the king’s highway of half a guinea and 4s. After trial at the Old Bailey on 24 Feb. 1768, he had been found guilty on both charges and had been sentenced to death. With regard to the second offence he had been recommended to mercy by the prosecutor (Old Bailey Proceedings (version 8.0, 08 June 2018), February 1768, trial of Benjamin Payne (t17680224-9)). 7. MS. A short word after ‘turn.’ is deleted. The word is indecipherable, but it may be that JB started to write ‘But’ but ran out of room and therefore scored it off. 8. For JB’s fascination with public executions, see p. 249 n. 1. ‘[JB] was sufficiently impressed by this execution to work up this portion of the Journal as a letter to The Public Advertiser, which he incorporated in a Hypochondriack essay (No. 68) fifteen years later. There he attempts to explain his lifelong interest in executions by saying that we have a natural anxiety to see how others face death, but he admits that a desire to see others suffer plays some part’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 151 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 141 n. 2). For the letter to Pub. Adv., published in the issue for 26 Apr. 1768, see also Facts and Inventions, pp. 78–82. 9. Jean-Baptiste Dubos (the Abbé du Bos) (1670–1742), in his Critical Reflections on Poetry, Painting and Music (translated by Thomas Nugent), 3 vols, London, 1748, Vol. 1, p. 9, wrote: ‘[T]he hurry and agitation, in which our passions keep us, even in solitude, is of so brisk a nature, that any other situation is languid and heavy, when compared to this motion. Thus we are led by instinct, in pursuit of objects capable of exciting our passions, notwithstanding those objects make impressions on us, which are frequently attended with nights and days of pain and calamity: but man in general would be exposed to greater misery, were he exempt from passions, than the very passions themselves can make him suffer.’ Nugent’s three-volume translation

of Dubos’s work was held in the library at Auchinleck House (Boswell’s Books, p. 185, #1097). 10. In his letter to Pub. Adv. with regard to the hangings (see n. 8 above), JB wrote that Payne was ‘a thin young lad of twenty, in a mean dress, and a red nightcap’ (Bailey, ii. 281). 11. The Ordinary of Newgate was the chaplain of Newgate prison, ‘whose duty was to prepare condemned prisoners for death’ (SOED). ‘Appointed by the Court of Aldermen of the City of London, he held office during good behaviour. He was always a clergyman of the Established Church . . . In general the Ordinary’s duty was to “read prayers, preach and instruct the prisoners” . . . As ecclesiastical livings went in eighteenth-century London, that of the Ordinary of Newgate, while not especially lucrative, nevertheless possessed opportunities beyond its salary and usual gifts, and for that reason there were usually two or three contestants for the vacant office’ (Linebaugh, pp. 248–49). John Moore was the Ordinary from 1764 until his death in 1769 (ibid., p. 249). In his letter to Pub. Adv. (see n. 8 above), JB wrote that Moore ‘discharged his duty with much earnestness, and a fervour for which I and all around me esteemed and loved him’ (Bailey, ii. 282). 12. Stephen Roe had been Ordinary from 1755 until his death in 1764. ‘His tenure . . . was distinguished by little except his implacable opposition to the London Methodists and the fact that Goldsmith parodied him’ (Linebaugh, p. 249). Goldsmith’s parody was ‘A Biographical Memoir, supposed to be written by the Ordinary of Newgate’ (Essay VIII in MWG, ii. 206–08). 13. At the shop of Edward Dilly (1732–79) and his brother Charles Dilly (1739–1807), booksellers and publishers, at 22 Poultry, near the Mansion House, at the sign of Rose and Crown (DPB, pp. 74–75). The Dillys lived above the shop (Oxford DNB; Kent’s Dir., 1768, p. 53). ‘The firm’s output was prodigious and varied, including

265

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 265

27/02/23 6:14 PM

23 march 1768 religious, historical, medical, legal, philosophical, mathematical, and literary works; the Dillys also gained a notable reputation for promoting dissenting and “American” materials’ (Oxford DNB). Edward Dilly was so fond of conversation that it was said that he ‘almost literally talked himself to death’ (Lit. Anec., iii. 190 n.). 14. Martha Dilly (d. 1803, ‘in her sixtysecond year’ (DNB, s.v. John Dilly)). 15. Mr. Clayton has not been identified. 16. Henry Mayo (1733–93), independent minister, M.A. (King’s College, Aberdeen, 1764), LL.D. (Marischal College, 1772). In 1762, he became pastor of the independent congregation in Nightingale Lane, Wapping, and was to remain there until his death. He undertook editorial work for the Dillys, who regularly invited him to dine with them, and had made some suggested alterations to JB’s language in An Account of Corsica, most of which JB had been able to prevent (see undated journal entry, p. 299, and p. 302 n. 13). From 1775 to 1783, Mayo would be the editor of the Lond. Mag., in which JB and Edward Dilly were partners. ‘Mayo appears to have been a dogged, no-nonsense character, intolerant of compromise or evasion but nevertheless sociable’ (Oxford DNB). 17. The medieval Guildhall, centre of municipal government of the City of London, about ¼ mile to the north-east of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Thought to have been ‘in existence at least as early as the 12th century’, the Guildhall was rebuilt in 1411 and ‘repaired and adorned’ in 1706. The Great Hall, where Lord Mayors, Sheriffs and Members of Parliament for the City were elected, was paved with hard Purbeck stone, and the windows were glazed with ‘heraldic splendour’ (Lond. Past and Present, ii. 169–70). 18. This was the last day for polling for the four City of London seats in the 1768 general election (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 152 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 142 n. 3).

19. Hon. Thomas Harley (1730–1804) of Berrington, Herefordshire, fourth son of Edward Harley (c. 1699–1755), 3rd Earl of Oxford, and Martha Morgan (d. 1774) (Comp. Peer. x. 268). By trade a wine merchant, he was an alderman of London from 1761 until death (Kent’s Dir. 1768, p. 188, shows him as being alderman of Tower ward), was M.P. for London from 1761 to 1774 and for Herefordshire from 1776 to 1802, and was Lord Mayor of London from 1767 to 1768. ‘In 1768 he was returned for London head of the poll. As lord mayor during the riots of May 1768 he exerted himself to restore law and order; his conduct won general praise, and an address was voted by both Houses asking the King to confer “some mark of distinction” upon him. He was made a Privy Councillor but refused a pension, asking instead for “something in the way of his profession”. In November 1768 he was given a share in the contract to remit money to the troops in North America’ (Namier and Brooke, ii. 586–87). 20. William Beckford (1709–70) of Fonthill, Wiltshire. The owner of large estates in Jamaica, he was M.P. for Shaftesbury from 1747 to 1754 and for London from 1754 to 1770. He was elected an alderman of the London ward of Billingsgate in 1752 (Kent’s Dir. 1768, p. 188, shows him as still being an alderman of that ward in 1768). From 1762 to 1763 he was Lord Mayor of London, and he would again be Lord Mayor from 1769 to 1770. In the 1768 general election he was returned third on the list for the City of London (Namier and Brooke, ii. 75–77). ‘His reputation in the City stood so high at his death that a statue was voted him in Guildhall . . . [However, all] his contemporaries agreed in judging Beckford a strange and contradictory character, and his enemies did not fail to point out the contrast between his declamations on liberty in England and his position as a great slave-owner in Jamaica, and the irregularities of his private life (which he boastfully exaggerated) called forth some criticism’ (ibid., pp. 77–78).

266

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 266

27/02/23 6:14 PM

23 march 1768 21. Barlow Trecothick (?1718–75) of Addington, Surrey. Much of his early life had been spent in Boston, Massachusetts, and in Jamaica. He had settled in London in about 1750 and became a merchant there, purchasing goods for merchants in North America. In 1764, he was elected an alderman of London (Kent’s Dir. 1768, p. 188, shows him as being alderman for the Vintry ward). He was an outspoken critic of the Stamp Act of 1765 (Namier and Brooke, iii. 557–58). ‘He had played a part in the opposition to the Stamp Act by colonial agents and merchants before it was passed’ and became ‘the foremost organizer of the agitation for [its repeal] among the British merchants’ (ibid., p. 558). In the 1768 general election he stood for the City of London and came fourth on the list, thus becoming one of the four M.P.s for the City. After the ‘Boston Massacre’ of 1770, Trecothick would speak indignantly in the House of Commons: ‘We have shown the Americans that we are not incapable of ideas, and even systems, of despotism . . . We choose to govern by will, rather than by reason . . . We have acted the parts of bullies in America’ (ibid., pp. 559–60). MS. ‘Trecothick’ written below ‘Beckford’. 22. Sir Richard Glyn (1711–73) of Gaunts (near Wimborne, Dorset), Bt. He was an alderman of London from 1750 until his death (Kent’s Dir. 1768, p. 188, shows him as being alderman for the Durgate ward), and he was Lord Mayor from 1758 to 1759. In 1753, he was one of the founding partners in the London banking firm of Vere, Glyn and Hallifax in Lombard Street. He was one of the four M.P.s for the City of London from 1758 to 1768. In the general election of 1768, he stood for the City again but came fifth on the list and thus failed to be re-elected. However, later that year he would be elected M.P. for Coventry with a large majority (Namier and Brooke, ii. 505–06 and i. 329). 23. John Paterson (?1705–89) of Epping, Essex, common councillor for London 1759–71, referred to by JB as ‘Mr.

Deputy Paterson’ as he was Deputy for the ward of Farringdon Within to the Court of Common Council (Royal Kal., p. 200). The Court of Common Council – ‘some 200 common councilmen plus the aldermen and Lord Mayor’ – was responsible for most of the government of the City (White, p. 521). From 1761 to 1768, Paterson was M.P. for the pocket borough of Ludgershall. He stood for the City of London in the 1768 general election, but came sixth on the list and therefore failed to be elected one of the four M.P.s for the City. ‘Paterson was more successful in his nonpolitical activities. On 22 Jan. 1767 he presented to common council a plan for raising £282,000 for public improvements in the City, “and received the thanks of the court for his zealous attention to promote the convenience, ornament, and emolument of the City” [Gent. Mag. 1767, p. 45]. And in his obituary note the [Gent. Mag. 1789, pp. 1154–55] wrote that to him, “among a variety of other conveniences, the public are indebted for Blackfriars bridge, the widening of old streets, and the introduction of new ones, and many regulations tending to preserve the safety of passengers, to secure the quiet, and promote the trade and commerce, of the City of London”’ (Namier and Brooke, iii. 252 and i. 329). 24. For John Wilkes, see pp. 108–10 n. 6. 25. JB had met Wilkes in Rome on two occasions in Feb. 1765 (Mem. 16 and 18 Feb. 1765, Grand Tour II, Heinemann pp. 52–53, McGraw-Hill p. 50), in Naples on six occasions in Mar. 1765 (Mem. 6, 13, 14, 15, 17 and 20 Mar. 1765, Grand Tour II, Heinemann pp. 56–62, McGraw-Hill pp. 53–58) and many occasions in Paris in Jan. 1766 (Mem. 19, 22, 24, 27, 29 and 30 Jan. 1766, Grand Tour II, Heinemann pp. 283–92, McGraw-Hill pp. 268–76). 26. Robert Herries (1730–1815), a brandy merchant in Barcelona with his headquarters in London. In 1762, he had become principal partner in the firm of Herries, Cochrane & Co. which acted as the London branch of the Edinburgh banking

267

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 267

27/02/23 6:14 PM

23 march 1768 firm of John Coutts & Co. The following year, after he had ejected his partner, William Cochrane (d. 1799), John Coutts & Co. terminated their association with him. In 1766, his firm became known as Herries and Co. (This firm, referred to as ‘merchants’, had premises at 3 Oxford Court, Cannon Street (Kent’s Dir. 1768, p. 84).) Herries devised ‘circular notes’, precursors of travellers’ cheques, which could be cashed at various agencies in Europe. In 1769, he would set up the London Exchange Banking Company, in which his partners included Sir William Forbes (for whom, see following note) and James Hunter (for whom, see p. 233 n. 4). However, Herries acquired a bad reputation for acting unscrupulously, and Forbes and Hunter would leave the partnership in 1775. Herries would be knighted in 1774, and from 1780 to 1784 would be M.P. for the Dumfries Burghs (Oxford DNB; Namier and Brooke, ii. 615–16; Corr. 10, p. 3 n. 2). 27. Sir William Forbes (1739–1806) of Monymusk (later of Pitsligo), Bt., banker and author. After serving a five-year apprenticeship with the Edinburgh banking firm of Coutts Bros. & Co. from 1754 to 1759, he was employed by them as a clerk and was assumed as a partner in the firm in 1761. The firm was reorganized as John Coutts & Co. in 1763 when James Hunter became a partner (Corr. 10, pp. lix n. 1, lxxi, lxxxiii). Robert Herries (for whom, see preceding note) was Forbes’s ‘mentor, banking associate, and lifelong friend’, and for ‘most of 1768 and the early part of 1769, [Forbes] lived in London as the guest of Herries, “attending the counting-house” ([Sir William Forbes,] Memoirs of a BankingHouse, [2nd ed., 1860,] p. 28)’ (Corr. 10, p. 3 n. 2). He would become senior partner in the Edinburgh firm in 1773, at which point the firm changed its name to Sir William Forbes, James Hunter & Co. (see p. 233 n. 4). ‘The house speedily became one of the most trusted in Scotland, and proved its claim to public credit by the excellence of the stand it made during the financial crises

and panics of 1772, 1788, and 1793. In 1783 the firm, after difficult preliminaries, began to issue notes, and the success of the experiment was immediate, decided, and continuous. Forbes had now come to be regarded as an authority on finance, and in the same year he took a leading part in preparing the revised Bankruptcy Act’ (DNB). ‘His bank was situated at the south side of the Parliament Close. He was actively involved in the management of several charitable institutions in Edinburgh, including the Charity Workhouse and the Royal Infirmary, and he wrote an Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, LL.D., which was published in 1806. It was said of him that he was “a gentleman of the most polished and dignified manners” (Kay, [i. 182]) and that he was “one of the most benevolent and public-spirited citizens of whom Edinburgh ever had to boast” (Wilson, [i.] 273). [JB] respected him immensely and appointed him one of his executors’ (BEJ, p. 102 n. 7). 28. The gun, pistols and dog were presents for JB from Pasquale Paoli (From Richard Edwards, 30 Nov. 1767, Corr. 5, pp. 259–60). On 1 Mar., the Lond. Chron. had printed the following notice (submitted by JB himself): ‘Messrs. Herries and Co., merchants in this city, have received bills of loading from Leghorn of presents from General Paoli to Mr. Boswell’ (quoted in Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 149 n. 4, McGrawHill p. 139 n. 8). The dog was Paoli’s second gift of a Corsican dog to JB. When JB left Corsica in Nov. 1765, Paoli had given him a dog called Jachone which JB described as ‘a strong and fierce animal’ (Corsica, p. 376; Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 206) and ‘one of the large mountain dogs so famous in that island for their hunting the wild boar, and for their guarding their master’ (paragraph in Lond. Chron. for 14 Jan. 1766, quoted in Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 340, McGrawHill p. 324). JB initially treated the dog with great cruelty (see Journ. 10, 11, 12 and 17 Dec. 1765, Grand Tour II, Heinemann pp. 239, 241, 243, 250, McGraw-Hill

268

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 268

27/02/23 6:14 PM

24 march 1768 pp. 226–27, 230, 236–37) and the dog ‘was lost somewhere near Auxerre’ during JB’s journey from Lyons to Paris (Earlier Years, p. 265). Pottle, after noting that Jachone ‘was full-grown and intractable’, suggests that ‘it seems fair to conclude that [JB] had been told in Corsica that he could induce him to follow on foot back to England only by disciplining him severely’ (ibid.). By the time he had reached Toulon, JB had decided ‘that it was to no purpose to beat the brute as he did not understand what I meant, being very stupid. I therefore resolved to carry him along with me just like a trunk or a packet that could move of itself’ (Journ. 20 Dec. 1765, Grand Tour II, Heinemann pp. 252–53, McGraw-Hill p. 239), and while at Lyons he caused a bed of hay to be made for him ‘in the corner of my room, where he lay very snugly’ (Journ. 2 Jan. 1766, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 272, McGraw-Hill p. 258). JB ‘later struck the worst of the beatings out of the manuscript . . . because he himself found the passages painful to read’ (Earlier Years, p. 265). 29. MS. ‘& I’ interlined. 30. That is, the Borough of Southwark, to the south of the River Thames. The ‘ageold three-part division’ of London between the City of London, the City of Westminster and the Borough of Southwark ‘was still real enough at the beginning of the eighteenth century, despite the unbroken continuity of the built-up area’ (White, p. 2).

31. Probably William Saunders (1743– 1817), M.D. (Edinburgh University, 1765), Scottish physician who started to acquire an extensive practice in London in about 1766. He lectured on chemistry and medicine, and would be appointed physician to Guy’s Hospital in 1770, where he worked until 1802 (Oxford DNB). 32. Probably James Carmichael Smyth (1742–1821), M.D. (Edinburgh University, 1764), Scottish physician who established a practice in London in 1768 and would be appointed physician to the Middlesex Hospital in 1775. In 1788, he would be elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He wrote several published works on medical matters; and he discovered a method of preventing fevers from being contagious, for which he was given a reward of £5,000 by Parliament in 1802 (Oxford DNB). 33. Miss Simson has not been identified. Possibly the young woman of that name whom JB had met in London in 1760. She was a friend of, and had lived in the same lodgings as, JB’s first lady of the town, Sally Forrester, and had been ‘very civil to’ him. JB met the pair again by chance in Chelsea during the evening of 10 June 1763, at which time ‘Miss Simson’ said she was married, and was now ‘Mrs. Tredwell’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 241). 34. That is, JB was in ‘armour’ (for which, see the entry for 22 Mar. and n. 10). MS. ‘In the strand . . . I however was armed.’ scored off with a modern pen.

Thursday 24 March1 [Notes2] Sir J P’s[.]3 [J.] I patroled the great Metropolis the whole morning. I dined at the worthy Consul’s. A Lady & a Gentleman were there. We were easy enough. At night I still patroled, I cannot tell where. But about 10, I came to Sir John Pringle’s. He received me with his usual grave steady kindness. General Clerk was with him.4 The conversation turned on the wars of Venus. The General assured me that oil was an infallible shield.5 Sir John nodded assent. I resolved to try it fairly. After the General went away, I talked to Sir John of Mademoiselle de Zuylen. I had just 269

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 269

27/02/23 6:14 PM

24 march 1768 received a letter from Mr. Brown at Utrecht,6 containing a very sensible proposal from her, that if I had any serious thoughts of her, I should come & see her, & then we might judge whether we could live happily together or not. Sir John had opposed any such scheme. But I found him now better disposed to it. Upon which I wrote to my father, & begged permission to go to Utrecht.7 1. On this day JB wrote to WJT mentioning praise for An Account of Corsica: ‘My Book has amazing celebrity. Lord Lyttelton Mr Walpole Mrs Macaulay Mr Garrick have all written me noble letters about it’ (Corr. 6, p. 227). For Lord Lyttelton and the relevant correspondence with him, see p. 304 n. 2. For Catharine Macaulay and the relevant correspondence with her, see undated journal entry, p. 299, and pp. 299–300 nn. 2–3.  On 23 Feb., JB had written to Horace Walpole (1717–97), later 4th Earl of Orford, sending him a presentation copy of An Account of Corsica, ‘to which you have a better claim than you perhaps imagine as I dare say you have forgotten what you said to me at Paris when I had the honour of giving you a few anecdotes of what I had just come from seeing among the brave Islanders. In short Sir your telling me that I ought to publish something in order to shew the Corsicans in a proper light, was my first incitement to undertake the work which has now made its appearance’ (Corr. 7, p. 30). But as Pottle remarks, it ‘is pretty clear, however, both from the Journal of a Tour itself and the notices sent to the newspapers before this meeting with Walpole, that the idea of writing a book on Corsica was formed while [JB] was still on the Island, if he did not go there with it in mind’ (Lit. Car. p. 60). Walpole’s reply is not reported (Corr. 7, p. 34).   David Garrick ‘had assured JB that he had already “read the History of Corsica with much delight, & You have done Your Friend great honor by Your Account of him – He is already rais’d Cent per Cent in the Minds of the People, and I assure you . . . that Your Book is well spoken of Everywhere . . . I never was more flattered in my Life — that You should chuse my

hurly burly Song of Hearts of Oak, to spirit up the Corsicans gave me great Pleasure!” (From David Garrick, 8 Mar.). Garrick’s famous song (music by William Boyce) was in his pantomime Harlequin’s Invasion (1759). For the episode in which JB sang it to Corsican soldiers, see Journ. 22–27 Oct. 1765 (Grand Tour II, [Heinemann pp. 185–86, McGraw-Hill p. 176])’ (Corr. 6, p. 228 n. 6). 2. ‘Notes’, here and in the entries for 25–30 March, refers to JB’s rough notes for 24–30 March 1768 (designated ‘J 14.1’ in the Yale editors’ cataloguing system), ‘[w]ritten on side 6 of J 15 [for which, see p. 304 n. 1] which bears the entry for 2 May’ (Catalogue, i. 9). 3. Sir John Pringle (1707–82), Bt., a Scot who had become a renowned military physician. He graduated M.D. from Leiden in 1730, subsequently commenced practice in Edinburgh, and was appointed joint professor of metaphysics and moral philosophy at Edinburgh University. When he was appointed physician to John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, commander of the British army on the continent, and was subsequently appointed physician to the army in Flanders (1742) and physician-general (1744), he became a great innovator with regard to military medicine. ‘His special contributions were the first scientific account of epidemiology in the field and prevention of cross-infection’ (Oxford DNB). He settled in London in 1748, continuing his medical practice there, and published his Observations on the Diseases of the Army in 1752. Other published works were Observations on the Nature and Cure of Hospital and Jayl Fevers (1750), ‘Experiments upon septic and antiseptic substances, with remarks relating to their use in the theory

270

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 270

27/02/23 6:14 PM

25 march 1768 of medicine’, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1750), ‘Account of persons seized with the gaol fever while working in Newgate’, in Philosophical Transactions (1753), and the Life of General James Wolfe (1760). He was admitted a fellow of the Royal Society in 1745 and of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1763. In 1761, he was appointed Physician to the Queen’s Household. His London residence was on the south side of Pall Mall (Oxford DNB; Mortimer, p. 42; McCrae, p. 114). JB noted that Sir John, ‘though a most worthy man’, has ‘a peculiar, sour manner’ (Journ. 15 Sept. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 310, McGraw-Hill p. 291) and that he usually received JB with ‘reserved kindness’ (Journ. 2 Sept. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 286, McGraw-Hill p. 269). ‘As Sir John has witnessed many of my weaknesses and follies’, wrote JB, ‘and been always like a parent to me, I cannot help standing much in awe of him’ (Journ. 2 Sept. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 287, McGraw-Hill p. 270). JB ‘had long been in the habit of consulting [Pringle] for advice on every matter . . . [Pringle] could be counted on to echo Lord Auchinleck’s opinion on every issue, though typically in kinder and more sympathetic tones’ (Corr. 5, pp. xli–xlii). 4. Robert Clerk, appointed Lt.-Col. on 8 Aug. 1757, Col. on 19 Feb. 1762, Maj.Gen. on 25 May 1772 and Lt.-Gen. on 29 Aug. 1777 (Army List, 1780, p. 3 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/30)). JB would meet Clerk again in 1787, when JB noted

that Clerk ‘chattered incessantly and prevented conversation. His Scottishness (in Macklin’s sense of it) was very disgusting’ (Journ. 7 Mar. 1787, Experiment, p. 121). Charles Macklin ‘created two unpleasant stage Scotsmen, Sir Archy MacSarcasm and Sir Pertinax MacSycophant’ (Experiment, p. 121 n. 4). Alexander Carlyle (1722–1805) recorded meeting Clerk in 1764: ‘[T]hough younger by at least a year than me, I had known [him] at college . . . This was a very singular man, of a very ingenious and active intellect, though he had broke short in his education by entering at an early age into the army; and having by nature a copious elocution, he threw out his notions, which were often new, with a force and rapidity which stunned you more than they convinced . . . I must confess, that of all the men who had so much understanding, he was the most disagreeable person to converse with whom I ever knew’ (Carlyle, pp. 473–74). 5. It is not clear what ‘oil’ is being referred to here as a form of supposed prevention of venereal infection. It seems to be not actually a medicine, or advertised concoction, but merely some readily available household item. Since the suggestion comes from Clerk, and Pringle nods assent, this practice was presumably applied among military men. 6. The Rev. Robert Brown. The letter from Brown is not reported (Corr. 7, p. 34). 7. See also p. 250 n. 1 above. This letter to Lord Auchinleck is not reported. For his negative reply, see the entry for 5 May below.

Friday 25 March [Notes] [D]ined Godfreys[,] supt Guthrie[.] [J.] I dined at my good kinsman Godfrey Bosville Esquire’s.1 Nobody was there; but just the family that I left.2 He received me with true kindness. Miss Bosville was now engaged to Sir Alexander MacDonald.3 Godfrey had drawn up a very full account of his family. It entertained me a good deal & put some comfortable ideas into my mind.4 I then went to Covent Garden and in one of the Courts called for a young lady whom I had seen when formerly in London.5 271

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 271

27/02/23 6:14 PM

25 march 1768 I did not find her; but I found Kitty Brookes as pretty a lively lass as youth need see.6 The oil was called and I played my part well. I never saw a girl more expert at it. I gave her only 4 shillings, to try her generosity. She never made the least sign of discontent; but was quite gay and obliging. Just as I was going away I turned back and again we loved. Then was the time for her to ask something. Yet she made not the smallest advance. I fell on my knees and kist her hand: ‘my dear Kitty you are a virtuous girl. I could marry you this moment.’ I then came home, and Mckonockie7 and I went to Percy Coffeehouse Rathbone Place,8 to meet Mr. Guthrie the Historian and Critical Reviewer,9 who had fought the battle of Douglas in the Review, and had praised my Account of Corsica.10 He was an old Gentleman about Sixty had on a white coat, and a crimson sattin waistcoat, with broad gold lace, and a bagwig.11 We had port and madeira and a hearty supper. He had a great deal of the London Authour. He praised my Book much, and drank a bumper to Pascal Paoli omni titulo major.12 He told me he and my father had been at the same class in the College,13 and he talked of little Robin Hunter.14 He said he did not wonder that the Douglas Cause was lost in Scotland as it had against it all the interest of the families of Hamilton[,] Argyle[,]15 Hyndford16 and the Dalrymples.17 (As he had observed in the Review that it was a loss to us in Scotland to have no Jury in civil causes,)18 I gave him Lord Hailes’s argument that the Lords of Session made a Jury, only a wiser and more enlightened Jury than a number of tradesmen.19 He answered this argument, by observing, that in England the Jury is allways changed for every cause, that the Jurymen are chosen by a sort of chance, as the Judges just take a pin, & prick at random on the back of the paper whereon their names are written, and wherever the holes happen to be made these Jurymen are chosen; whereas, said he, the Lords of Session form a perpetual Jury which is a very dangerous one. He praised my Account of Corsica much, though he found some faults with it. ‘You will see my opinion of it’, said he.20 It was curious to sit with the very person whom in a little I should look upon as an aweful Reviewer. He talked very well (I mean very justly) of Wilkes;21 Said that he wrote with vivacity; but that there was no political knowledge, no manliness in his papers. Ah said he when Lord Bolingbroke22 & I wrote together, when the Craftsman came out,23 when Old England by Jeffery Broadbottom came out.24 We took a very cheerful glass of claret and Maderia. He took me by the hand, & said my conversation exceeded my writing. Well said he, you are a Genius. A thousand people might have thought of making themselves famous, before one would have thought of Corsica. He asked Mckonochie and me to dine with him on the Sunday senight. When the old man praised my Book, I paid him a very genteel compliment. Sir said I amidst such historick oaks as yours, it is well if a little praise can be given to such a shrub as mine growing on the rocky surface of Corsica. I gave him some curious anecdotes of Scotch Antiquities, which I had learnt from my father. Upon the whole, the evening went well off. We accompanied him home in our hackney coach as far as Portland25 Chapel26 where he lived. Mr. Mckonochie then set me down. 272

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 272

27/02/23 6:14 PM

25 march 1768 1. For Godfrey Bosville (with whom JB corresponded regularly) and his London residence, see p. 222 n. 11. Pottle refers to him as ‘a shrewd, solid, hearty squire of engaging manners and considerable parts’ (Earlier Years, p. 284). Although regarded by JB as the ‘chief’ of the Boswell family (the ‘three names Bosville, Boswell, and Boswall are variants of the original French Boisville’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 7 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 7 n. 5)), ‘no connection between the families has ever been proved’ (Corr. 5, p. 38 n. 1). For an account of the Bosvilles, see Fortunes of a Family. After their first meeting on 15 Feb. 1766, JB described him as a ‘plain-looking man, but a judicious, knowing, worthy gentleman’ (Mem. 16 Feb. 1766, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 300, McGraw-Hill p. 284). Bosville ‘extended to [JB] a permanent invitation to family dinner and gave him a no less permanent affection’ (Earlier Years, p. 284). JB had first met his eldest son, William Bosville (1745–1813), by chance in London in Apr. 1763, recording him as being ‘a genteel well-looked agreable young Man’ (Journ. 18 Apr. 1763, LJ 1762–63, pp. 200, 455 n. 5). He was at that time an Ensign in the Coldstream Guards (appointed 24 Dec. 1761) and would be promoted to Lt. on 11 Jan. 1769 (Army List, 1768, p. 51 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/18); Army List, 1770, p. 51 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/20)). 2. After dining with the Bosvilles on 15 Feb. 1766, JB recorded in his diary the next day that the persons who had been present were Godfrey Bosville, his wife, Diana (for whom, see p. 222 n. 11), a ‘stately sensible woman’, Elizabeth Diana Bosville, her younger sister, Julia Bosville (1754–1833), a ‘brisk little girl’ (who in 1780 would marry William Ward (1750– 1823), from 1788 Viscount Dudley and Ward (Burke’s Peerage, 89th ed., p. 815)), and also one of Mrs. Bosville’s sisters, Annabella Wentworth (1742–c. 1781), a ‘genteel town lady’ (Mem. 16 Feb. 1766, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 300, McGraw-Hill p. 284;

see also Corr. 5, pp. 38 n. 3, 39 n. 6). Annabella Wentworth went to Europe in 1772 with a female friend, died ‘at Nancy at the age of thirty-nine, and was buried at Fénébranges in the Lorraine Allemande’ (Fortunes of a Family, p. 126). JB dined again with the Bosvilles on 18 Feb. ‘and had nobody there but the family’. William Bosville was present, JB recording him as being ‘determined to go to America to see that country and to rise in his profession’ (Mem. 19 Feb. 1766, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 306, McGraw-Hill p. 290). He would serve as a captain in North America from 1776 to 1777 during the American War of Independence, but it seems that he retired from the army in 1777 and ‘became well known as a hospitable bon vivant’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 455 n. 5. See also Army List, 1776, p. 51 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/26); Army List, 1777, p. 51 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/27(1)); Fortunes of a Family, p. 187; Mackinnon, i. 434–48). Of the 15 Feb. dinner, JB recorded that ‘Mrs. Bosville had set me by her daughter [i.e. Elizabeth Diana], who talked most genteelly of routs, and yet she liked the country, reading and walking. She was as mild as before.’ At the 18 Feb. dinner, she ‘said she never danced or played cards’. JB relates that he ‘very gallantly praised her extraordinary beauty without direct flattery. Father and mother would not seem to encourage this’ (Mem. 19 Feb. 1766, Grand Tour II, Heinemann pp. 306–07, McGraw-Hill pp. 290–91). He called again on 21 Feb., and ‘freely took their family dinner. The Squire had bid me to come in at any time, and Mrs. Bosville said, “We shall make no stranger of you, Sir”’ (Mem. 22 Feb. 1766, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 309, McGraw-Hill pp. 292–93). 3. Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat, Bt. 4. ‘At this point a leaf of the journal has been removed, but the passage can be recovered from a typescript made at a time when this portion of the text was intact’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 153 n. 2,

273

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 273

27/02/23 6:14 PM

25 march 1768 McGraw-Hill p. 143 n. 8). The typescript is in the manuscript journal (Yale MS. J 14). The passage on the missing leaf ends with the words ‘I gave him Lord Hailes’s argument that the Lords of Session made a Jury, only a wiser and more enlightened Jury than a number of tradesmen.’ 5. At this time, Covent Garden ‘was starting to fall into disrepair, particularly the area between the market and the Strand. Here, landlords did not bother to repair the housing; girls rented rooms simply to do business from . . . These were the women who featured in Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies’ (Inglis, p. 148). The first edition of Harris’s List was written in 1757 by Samuel Derrick. The book was based on information from Jack Harris (or Harrison), the chief waiter at the Shakespear’s Head, who ‘kept a list of women inside his jacket from which he could choose the appropriate woman for a client’s requirements’ (ibid., pp. 148–49). Harris’s List, which was ‘an instant success and ran for the next thirty-eight years’, was not merely a guide to where the ladies in question could be found, but also contained ‘graphic descriptions of their prices, bodies and talents’ (ibid., p. 149). 6. No reference to Kitty Brookes has been found in Harris’s List. The 1773 edition refers (on p. 37) to ‘B––ke, Mrs’, but p. 50 makes it clear that this is a reference to a Mrs. Blake. 7. Alexander Maconochie (or McKonochie or Mackonochie) (?1736–?96), writer in Edinburgh, admitted notary public 26 Feb. 1762, was one of the principal legal agents for Archibald Douglas in the Douglas Cause. Williamson, p. 48, refers to an Alexander McConochie, writer, residing at Cowgatehead, who may well have been the same person. JB described him as ‘a little man of admirable common sense, observation, activity, and really a good share of neat taste from having seen so much of the world’. He was possibly the same person as the Alexander Maconochie, one of the Commissioners of Cus-

toms for Scotland, who died on 16 Apr. 1796 (Journ. 8 July 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 237, McGraw-Hill p. 223; Finlay, i. 308, No. 1637; Scots Mag. 1796, lviii. 289; Douglas Cause, p. 19; Corr. 5, p. 267 n. 1). On 25 Dec. 1767, Maconochie had written to JB from London expressing optimism with regard to the likely outcome of Douglas’s appeal to the House of Lords: ‘I really am fully and absolutly convinced that Mr. Douglas will prevail and this is the universall oppinion of every person whatever. It is true the Law Lords will not say to us expressly that they have read the Cause and that they are of that oppinion, but from every thing that passes they seem to point strongly our way.’ Maconochie also stated that he was ‘very happy’ to see from a letter JB had sent him earlier that JB had ‘forgiven the libertys we took for the good of the Cause (as we thought) upon the publication of your Essence’. This contretemps had arisen in the following way. JB’s Essence (for which, see Introduction, pp. 24–26) ‘was first advertised in the Lond. Chron. for 24 Nov. Three days earlier a pamphlet entitled Considerations on the Douglas Cause – a violently pro-Hamilton tract purporting to be written by an impartial gentleman who had examined the facts of the case – had appeared simultaneously in Edinburgh and London. An ardent supporter of Douglas’s hastily wrote an 18-page response to the Considerations, entitled Some Observations on a Pamphlet Lately Published (i.e., The Considerations). [John] Wilkie [the publisher of the Lond. Chron.], without consulting JB, printed the Observations with JB’s Essence, giving equal mention to both on the titlepage. JB was outraged and demanded that Wilkie print an advertisement disclaiming the Observations (Lond. Chron. 3–5 Dec. xxii. 543; Lit. Car. pp. 39–41)’ (Corr. 5, p. 267 n. 2). Maconochie, acknowledging in his letter that the Observations ‘are not I am very sensible a Sufficient answer’ to the ‘infamous’ Considerations, explained that ‘there was no thought of making any observations upon them at all till the Duke

274

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 274

27/02/23 6:14 PM

25 march 1768 of Queensberry read them and said he thought it would be necessary to take the Sting a little from the Considerations by contradicting some of the grossest misrepresentations contained in them, this was all we had in view and all we had time to do as the Appeal you know was to be entered next day’ (Corr. 5, p. 266). In a later letter, dated 3 Feb. 1768, Maconochie expressed concern that JB had perhaps not pardoned him for his involvement in this matter after all, fearing that, as he had not heard from JB for a long time, ‘you have not forgiven me for the observations subjoined to the Essence’ (Corr. 7, p. 15). (However, it would appear from the entry (in JB’s journal notes) for 5 May below that relations between them would by that time be cordial.) Maconochie went on to mention that it was likely that George Cockburn, who had recently adopted the name of Haldane, would stand as a candidate at the general election that year; that, if elected, his post as sheriff-depute of Stirlingshire and Clackmannanshire would become vacant; and that Maconochie was ‘Certain the Duke of Queensbery would do his very utmost to gett it for you if asked’. However, although Haldane ‘made moves towards running for Parliament’, he ‘ultimately decided against it, thus blocking JB’s aspirations to the office of Sheriff (Pol. Car. p. 45; J. A. L. Haldane, The Haldanes of Gleneagles, 1929, pp. 297–99). [He] assumed the name of Haldane in anticipation of being officially served heir to his uncle, Capt. Robert Haldane [(1705–67)], on 5 Aug. 1768’ (Corr. 7, p. 16 and 17 n. 11). 8. The Percy Coffee House at 29–30 Rathbone Place, off the north side of Oxford Street. This is the first noted mention of this establishment, which would remain in existence until the mid-nineteenth century (Lond. Coffee Houses, pp. 445–47, No. 987; Lond. Signs, p. 406). 9. William Guthrie (?1708–70), historian and political journalist, a Scot who settled in London in about 1730. He wrote well-respected reports on parliamentary

business for the Gent. Mag. ‘But, writing under the pseudonym Jeffrey Broadbottom, he also produced rather more scurrilous material, including the infrequent periodical Old England, or, The Constitutional Journal (1743–6) and the blatantly scatological Serious and Cleanly Meditations upon an House-of-Office (a Boghouse) (1744)’ (Oxford DNB). His published historical works included the four-volume History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to 1688 (1744–51), Complete List of the English Peerage (1763), the twelve-volume General History of the World, from the Creation to the Present Time (1764–67), the ten-volume General History of Scotland (1767) and, his most acclaimed work, the Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar (1770). 10. The Crit. Rev. for Nov. 1767, xxiv. 375–79, contained a review of JB’s Letters of The Right Honourable Lady Jane Douglas (for which, see Introduction, pp. 27–28), remarking (at p. 375) that the ‘unaffected simplicity, endearment, and tenderness which breathe through these Letters . . . are so inimitable, that a reader of the smallest discernment may safely pronounce them to be the undisguised effusions of a good heart’. The same edition of the Crit. Rev., at pp. 380–81, contained a review of the Essence, expressing the view that the work was ‘extracted from the legal proceedings with great judgment’ and that Archibald Douglas had ‘a right to the benefits of filiation’, having been ‘owned by a man and a woman, lawfully joined in marriage, to be their legitimate issue’. A review of An Account of Corsica appeared in the edition of the Crit. Rev. for Mar. 1768, xxv. 172–81. After commenting (at p. 178) that the most entertaining part of the work was the Journal of a Tour to Corsica and the Memoirs of Pascal Paoli, ‘because it could not be the result of reading or information’, the review went on (at p. 181) to remark: ‘Upon the whole, our author has, in the person of Paoli, realized all the ideas which the most vigorous imagination could form of a chief, a patriot, and a legislator, embellished with

275

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 275

27/02/23 6:14 PM

25 march 1768 the ornaments of an understanding cultivated by polite literature’. 11. A bag-wig was an eighteenth-century wig ‘with the back-hair enclosed in a bag’ (SOED). 12. ‘“Greater than any title”, that is, so great a man that no one used a title with his name. [JB] is thinking of a passage in Corsica [p. 154 n.; Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 86] in which he says that, at Lord Hailes’s suggestion, he had avoided calling Paoli “Signor” or “General”. “You do not say King Alexander, but Alexander of Macedon”’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 154 n. 3, McGraw-Hill p. 144 n. 2). 13. That is, at Edinburgh University. Lord Auchinleck stayed six years at the University, from 1719 to 1725, then went to the ‘Civil Law Class’, and in 1727 passed his trials for being admitted advocate. In Aug. of that year, he set off for London on his way for further law study in Leiden, for which he departed two months later (Auch. Fam. Memoirs). 14. Robert Hunter, Professor of Greek at Edinburgh University (for whom, see pp. 113–14 n. 1). 15. John Campbell, from 1770 the 5th Duke of Argyll, was married to Elizabeth Gunning (1733–90), formerly the Duchess of Hamilton, widow of James Hamilton (1724–58), 6th Duke of Hamilton. She and the Duke of Hamilton were the parents of James George Hamilton, 7th Duke of Hamilton, the pursuer in the Douglas Cause (Scots Peer. i. 386–87, iv. 393; Comp. Peer. vi. 270–71). 16. John Carmichael, 4th Earl of Hyndford, was an heir of line failing issue of Lady Jane Douglas (Douglas Cause, p. 15). 17. Sir Hew Dalrymple (1712–90) of North Berwick, Bt., was another heir

of line failing issue of Lady Jane Douglas (ibid.). He was M.P. for Haddington Burghs 1742–47, Haddingtonshire 1747–61 and Haddington Burghs 1761–68 (Namier and Brooke, ii. 293–95). 18. The brackets at the beginning and end of this passage are as shown marked in pencil on the typescript. It is assumed that the brackets were also in the MS. journal. 19. The MS. journal resumes at this point. It is not known when or where Lord Hailes made this argument. 20. MS. Strokes (clearly intended as quotation marks) appear after ‘said he’ instead of after ‘opinion of it’. 21. MS. Brackets deleted after semicolon. 22. Henry St. John, styled 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, author and politician. 23. The Craftsman, the first issue of which appeared in Dec. 1726, was ‘a journalistic venture which heralded the birth of a formidable opposition to [Robert] Walpole and the beginnings of a propaganda campaign of sustained brilliance and of rare political sophistication . . . The Craftsman attracted contributions from Bolingbroke . . . and other leading thinkers in the opposition camp’ (Oxford DNB, s.v. Henry St John, styled first Viscount Bolingbroke). 24. See n. 9 above. 25. MS. ‘Portrland’. 26. Portland Chapel, a proprietary chapel on the west side of Great Portland Street (Horwood, p. 12, Ca), was a ‘substantial building with a stone cupola built by Stiff Leadbetter between 1760 and 1766’ (Old Lond. Churches, p. 248). It would not be consecrated until 1831, when it became St. Paul’s Chapel (or Church), and it was taken down in 1908 (Hennessy, p. 328; Bacon, p. 14, L18; Old Lond. Churches, p. 248).

Saturday 26 March [Notes] Went to Oxford[,] tea & Supper Chalmbers[.] [J.] On my coming to London, I had called on Mr. Samuel Johnson. But found he was gone to Oxford, & was living at New Inn Hall.1 I was very anxious to see 276

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 276

27/02/23 6:14 PM

26 march 1768 again my revered friend. I had written him many letters, & had received none from him, of a long time. I had published my Account of Corsica, in which I had spoken very highly of him. Yet he had taken no notice of it. I had heard he was displeased at my having put into my book a part of one of his letters to me.2 In short I was quite in the dark concerning him. But be it as it would, I was determined to find him out, & if possible, be well with him as usual.3 I therefore set out early this morning in the Oxford Fly.4 Anthony5 had an outside place. My travelling companions were an old redfaced fat Gentlewoman who lived in the Borough of Southwark, & whose Husband dealt in a wholesale trade of brandy & wine.6 Dr. Cockayne7 a lecturer at one of the Churches lodged in her house, having his own maid servant & a Boy. But she would not board the Doctor. No no. ‘I knows him too well. Why he’s the greatest Epicure, perpetually minding his belly. I tells him why Doctor you do nothing else from morning to night. You sure have a false pocket. And so I roasts him. But he’s a good-natured creature, & would have every one to share with him. He gets up my daughter, come now Miss, we’ll have some tea & something very nice with it.’ Besides this good woman there was a Clergyman a stiff divine a fellow of a college in Oxford. He was very wise, & laughed at the old Lady. The fourth in the coach was a little Taylour, who has often tripped over to France & Flanders, & who therefore had a right to talk as a travelled man. All the road was roaring with Wilkes & Liberty, which with No. 45 was chalked on every coach & chaise.8 We breakfasted at Slow.9 We became very merry. We dined at Henley,10 & there we were as hearty as People could be. We had a good drive to Oxford with allways t’other joke on Dr. Cockayne. We stopped at the gate of Magdalen College,11 of which our Clergyman was a fellow. He jumped out of the coach, & in a moment we saw what a great man he was; for he went into the Barber’s & got the key of his chambers, & two or three people followed him with his trunk, tea things & I know not what all. The Lady left us here too. The Taylour & I put up at the Angel where the Coach inns;12 but we parted there. I immediatly had some coffee, & then got a guide to shew me New Inn Hall. Mr. Johnson lived in the house of Mr. Chambers the head of that hall & Vinerian Professour at Oxford.13 I supposed the Professour would be very formal, and I apprehended but an aukward reception. However I rung, & was shewn into the Parlour. In a little down came Mr. Chambers a lively easy agreable Newcastle man. I had sent up my name Mr. Boswell. After receiving me very politely, Sir14 said he you are Mr. Boswell of Auchinleck? Yes Sir. Mr. Johnson wrote to you yesterday.15 He dined abroad, but I expect him in every minute. Oho! thought I this is excellent. I was quite relieved. Mr. Chalmers16 gave me tea and by & by arrived the great Man. He took me all in his arms, & kist me on both sides of the head, and was as cordial as ever I saw him. I told him all my perplexity on his account & how I had come determined to fight him, or to do any thing he pleased. What said he did you come here on purpose? Yes indeed, said I. This gave him high satisfaction. I told him how I was settled as a Lawyer & how I had made 200 Pounds by the law this year.17 He grumbled & laughed, & was wonderfully pleased. What Bosy? two hundred pounds! a great deal. I had longed much to see him as my great Preceptour to state to him some difficulties as a moralist with 277

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 277

27/02/23 6:14 PM

26 march 1768 regard to the Profession of the law, as it appeared to me that in some respects it hurt the principles of honesty & I asked him if it did not. ‘Why no Sir said he if you act properly. You are not to deceive your clients with false representations of your opinion. You are not to tell lies to a Judge.’ But said I what do you think of pleading a cause which you know to be bad. ‘Sir you dont know it to be bad, till the Judge determines it. I have said that you are to state your facts fairly; so that your thinking or what you call knowing a cause to be bad must be from reasoning; must be from thinking your arguments weak & inconclusive. But, Sir, that is not enough. An argument which does not convince you yourself may convince the Judge before whom you plead it; and if it does convince him, why then Sir you are wrong & he is right. It is his business to Judge, & you are not to be confident in your opinion, but to say all you can for your Client, and then hear the Judge’s opinion.’ But Sir said I does not the putting on a warmth when you have no warmth & appearing to be clearly of one opinion when you are in reality of another, does not such dissimulation hurt one’s honesty? Is there not some danger that one may put on the same mask in common life, in the intercourse with one’s friends? — ‘Why no Sir. Every body knows you are paid for putting on a warmth for your client, & it is properly no dissimulation. The moment you come from the bar, you resume your usual behaviour. Sir a man will no more carry the artifice of the bar into the common intercourse of society, than a man who is paid for tumbling upon his hands, will continue18 tumbling19 upon his hands, when he ought to be walking on his feet.’ Wonderful force & fancy. At once he satisfied me as to a thing which had often and often perplexed me. It was truly comfortable having him in his own old high-church oxford, & I had besides many good ideas of the Vinerian Professour, the head of a Hall &c. These halls were originally additions to Colleges where there was not sufficient room. In time some of them became unecessary, as the number of students decreased. There are no students in New Inn Hall. But it is kept up & gives the rank of master to Mr. Chambers. I told Mr. Johnson a story which I should have recorded before this time. The day before I left London, coming through Bloomsbury Square & being drest in green & gold,20 I was actually taken for Wilkes, by a Middlesex voter, who came up to me. ‘Sir I beg pardon is not your name Wilkes?’ — Yes Sir. — I thought so. I saw you upon the hustings & I thought I knew you again. Sir I’m your very good friend. I’ve got you five & twenty votes to-day. I bowed & grin[’]d & thanked him & talked of Liberty & General Warrants, and I dont know what all.21 I told him too between ourselves that the King had a very good opinion of me. I ventured to ask him how he could be sure that I was a right man & acted from publick spirit. He was a little puzzled. So I helped him out. ‘As to my private character, it would take a long time to explain it. But Sir if I were the Devil I have done good to the People of England, & they ought to support me.’ ‘Ay’ said he. I am vexed I did not make more of this curious incident. After carrying my voter half way down Long Acre,22 I stopped & looked him gravely in the face. Sir I must tell you a secret. I’m not Mr. Wilkes, & what’s more, I’m a Scotsman. He stared not a little & said Sir I beg pardon for having given you so much trouble. No Sir said I. You have been very good company to me. I wonder he did not beat me. I said to Mr. Johnson that I 278

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 278

27/02/23 6:14 PM

26 march 1768 never before knew that I was so ugly a fellow.23 He was angry at me that I did not borrow money from the voter. Indeed it would have made a fine scene at Brentford24 when he demanded payment of the real Wilkes, & called him a Rogue for denying the debt. The conversation of Mr. Johnson[,] Mr. Chalmers & me then turned on the latest Authours. Mr. Johnson would allow no character to False Delicacy.25 He praised Goldsmith’s Goodnatured Man. He said it was the best Comedy that has appeared since the Provoked Husband.26 Sir said he there has not been of late any such character exhibited on the stage as that of Croaker.27 I told him it was just the Suspirius of his Rambler.28 He said Goldsmith owned he had borrowed it from thence. Sir said he there is all the difference in the world between characters of nature & characters of manners. And there is the difference between those of Fielding & those of Richardson. Characters of manners are very entertaining; but they are to be understood by a more superficial observer than characters of nature can be where a man must dive into the recesses of human nature. Even Sir Francis Wronghead is a character of manners, though drawn with great humour. He then repeated all Sir Francis’s story to Manly of his being with the great man, & securing a place.29 I asked him if the Suspicious Husband30 did not furnish a well drawn character[,] that of Ranger? No Sir said he Ranger is just a Rake a mere Rake & a lively young fellow, but no character. I asked him & Mr. Chambers to go & sup at my room. They made me stay with them that night; & promised to come to me next night. I brought on the subject of the Douglas Cause. Mr. Johnson had never studied it. He had just heard parts of it. He was of opinion that positive or what is called proof that admits of no doubt should not be required; but that Judges should give the cause according as the probability should preponderate, allowing however to Mr. Douglas the general presumption of filiation as strong in his favour.31 He thought a good deal of force should be allowed to the dying declarations, for this reason because they were voluntary & spontaneous[;]32 for he observed that there is all the difference in the world between what is said without our being pushed to it, & what is said from a sort of compulsion. If I praise a man’s Book without being asked my opinion of it, that is honest praise, and may be depended on. But when an Authour asks me if I like his Book, & I give him something like praise, it must not be taken as my real opinion. I thought within myself, I should not ask him about my Book. He promised to read my Essence of the Douglas Cause.33 He told us he had not been plagued of a long time with Authours desiring his opinion of their works. He said he used once to be sadly plagued with a man who wrote verses, but who had no other notion of a verse but that it consisted of ten syllables. Lay your knife and your fork accross your plate was to him a verse[:] ˉ your fōrk accrōss your plāte Lay yōur knife & And as he wrote a great number of verses, he sometimes by chance made good ones, though he did not know it. He put me in mind of our journey to Harwich, & we recalled many a circumstance.34 He also renewed his promise of coming to Scotland & visiting with me, some of the western isles.35 He was now to content 279

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 279

27/02/23 6:14 PM

26 march 1768 himself with seeing one or two of the most curious. He said Macaulay who writes the account of St. Kilda, set out with a prejudice against prejudices & wanted to be a smart modern thinker & yet he affirms for a truth that when a ship arrives all the Inhabitants are seised with a cold.36 In this manner did our evening pass. When I got home I went to bed more comfortably than I had done for a good while past. But I was still apprehensive of some venereal mischief, & at any rate, had the remains of an old one though without infection.37 1. New Inn Hall, which had been built in the fifteenth century, ‘became noted for its jurists’, and by the time of JB’s visit ‘was little more than the sinecure of Principals who were eminent jurists’ (HCO 3, p. 337). One such jurist was Sir William Blackstone (for whom, see p. 335 n. 14), who was Principal from 1761 to 1766 and was followed by Robert Chambers (for whom, see n. 13 below) (ibid.). 2. The letter from SJ, dated 14 Jan. 1766, was received by JB in Paris. A portion of the letter was quoted by JB in Corsica as follows: ‘When you return, you will return to an unaltered, and I hope, unalterable friend. All that you have to fear from me, is the vexation of disappointing me. No man loves to frustrate expectations which have been formed in his favour, and the pleasure which I promise myself from your journals and remarks, is so great, that perhaps no degree of attention or discernment will be sufficient to afford it. Come home however and take your chance. I long to see you, and to hear you; and hope that we shall not be so long separated again. Come home, and expect such a welcome as is due to him whom a wise and noble curiosity has led where perhaps, no native of this country ever was before’ (Corsica, p. 362; Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 208). In the Life, JB would explain the original circumstances of the correspondence: ‘Notwithstanding his long silence, I never omitted to write to him when I had any thing worthy of communicating. I generally kept copies of my letters to him, that I might have a full view of our correspondence, and never be at a loss to understand any reference in his letters. He kept the

greater part of mine very carefully; and a short time before his death was attentive enough to seal them up in bundles, and order them to be delivered to me, which was accordingly done. Amongst them I found one, of which I had not made a copy, and which I own I read with pleasure at the distance of almost twenty years. It is dated November, 1765, at the palace of Pascal Paoli, in Corte, the capital of Corsica, and is full of generous enthusiasm. After giving a sketch of what I had seen and heard in that island, it proceeded thus: “I dare to call this a spirited tour. I dare to challenge your approbation”’ (Life ii. 2–3). A transcription of SJ’s letter in the hand of JB’s son Alexander was used as copy for the Life (Letters SJ, i. 261–62). SJ’s letter is quoted in full in Life ii. 3–4. 3. JB wrote to WJT on 24 Mar., ‘I go to Oxford to venerate the shades of science with the illustrious Samuel Johnson’ (Corr. 6, p. 227). 4. By 1754, as a result of improvements to the roads, the journey from London to Oxford in a ‘flying coach’ took one day (Day, p. 290). 5. JB’s servant, Anthony Mudford. 6. Not further identified. Nor are the tailor and the fellow of Magdalen College. 7. William Cockayne (or Cokayne) (1717–98), Church of England clergyman, graduated B.A. (1740), M.A. (1744), B.D. (1751) and D.D. (1754) from St. John’s College, Oxford, Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, London (1752–95), rector of Kilkhampton in Cornwall (1763–98) (Alum. Oxon. i. 272; Oxford DNB). 8. See pp. 108–10 n. 6. 9. That is, Slough.

280

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 280

27/02/23 6:14 PM

26 march 1768 10. Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, about 24 miles south-east of Oxford. 11. Magdalen College, off the north side of the High Street, was founded in the mid-fifteenth century for the study of theology and philosophy. Although there were various plans in the eighteenth century to remove some of the old, historic buildings to make way for new structures, the ancient edifices remained intact (HCO 3, p. 206). The academic history of the college in the eighteenth century was undistinguished (ibid., p. 199). Gibbon, who went to the college in his fifteenth year, and whose account is considered to be accurate (ibid.), states that he spent fourteen months there and that those months proved to be ‘the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life’ (Gibbon, p. 36). 12. The Angel Inn, on the south side of High Street, with extensive stabling in the lane behind, was owned by Magdalen College (Selwyn, p. 437). ‘Princes and dukes stayed there in the late 17th century and it remained the first inn of Oxford until 1866 . . . In the heyday of coaching ten coaches started from the Angel at 8 o’clock each morning, and it remained the chief coaching inn throughout that era’ (ibid., pp. 437–38). 13. Robert Chambers (1737–1803), educated at the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle, matriculated Lincoln College, Oxford, 30 May 1754, admitted to the Middle Temple 28 June 1754, B.A. 1758, M.A. 1761, called to the Bar 22 May 1761, B.C.L. 1765, appointed Vinerian Professor of the Laws of England at Oxford University 7 May 1766, Principal of New Inn Hall Dec. 1766. Chambers was a close friend of SJ, who at the time of JB’s visit to Oxford was helping Chambers prepare the lectures which he was due to deliver. (JB seems not to have known of this assistance, as the matter was then, and long after, kept secret. It was not fully revealed until disclosed by twentiethcentury scholarship (see E. L. McAdam, Dr. Johnson and the English Law, 1951, pp. 65–122).) Chambers had recently become a member of the Literary Club in London. In

1773, Chambers would be appointed second judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Bengal, eventually becoming Chief Justice in 1791. He was knighted in 1777, and ‘discharged his judicial duties with integrity and percipience for a quarter of a century’ (Oxford DNB. See also Alum. Oxon. i. 235; Reg. Adm. Middle Temple, p. 347; Royal Kal. 1768, p. 228). He would be elected bencher of Middle Temple on 8 Nov. 1799 (Reg. Adm. Middle Temple, p. 347). 14. MS. ‘politely. Sir’. 15. SJ’s letter is not reported. 16. JB here, and once again later in this entry, inadvertently wrote ‘Chalmers’ instead of ‘Chambers’. 17. JB’s fees for the Court of Session’s summer session 1767 (12 June–11 Aug.), the autumn vacation 1767 and the winter session 1767/68 (12 Nov.–11 Mar.) amounted to 64 guineas, 2 guineas and 131 guineas respectively, coming in all to £206 17s. (Consultation Book; LPJB 1, pp. 376– 78, LPJB 2, pp. 395–400). ‘In 1775, [JB] reckoned that his earnings at the Bar were then about £300 a year [Journ. 2 Jan. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 51]. That has to be compared with the huge earnings of Ilay Campbell, who said he had earned £1,600 one year [Journ. 27 Aug. 1774, Defence, Heinemann p. 295, McGraw-Hill p. 282], and the even bigger earnings of Robert McQueen, who told [JB] in 1776 that his income from the law was “near £2,000 a year” [see p. 94 n. 3]. However, these were exceptional figures. When compared against the benchmark of the salary of a Court of Session judge – £700 – [JB] was doing reasonably well’ (LPJB 1, p. xlix). 18. MS. ‘continue’ interlined. 19. MS. ‘tumble’; ‘ing’ superimposed. 20. See pp. 254–55 n. 7 above for this outfit. 21. See pp. 108–10 n. 6. 22. In and around Long Acre, in Covent Garden, between St. Martin’s Lane and Drury Lane, was where the ‘most celebrated coachmakers of London were to be found’ (White, p. 215).

281

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 281

27/02/23 6:14 PM

26 march 1768 23. Wilkes’s countenance was ‘marred by a jutting jaw and a disabling squint that focused his eyes just a few inches from his nose . . . By his middle years Wilkes’s teeth were uneven, bad or missing and he talked with such a lisp that he was at first hearing difficult to understand’ (White, p. 512). His image was accurately captured in Hogarth’s famous engraving of 1763. 24. Brentford was ‘the county town ten miles to the west of the metropolis’ where the poll for the Middlesex election was held (White, p. 524). 25. ‘Garrick brought out Hugh Kelly’s False Delicacy at Drury Lane six days before Goldsmith’s Good-Natured Man was brought out at Covent Garden. “It was the town talk,” says Mr. Forster (Goldsmith, ii. 93), “some weeks before either performance took place, that the two comedies . . . were to be pitted against each other.” False Delicacy had a great success. Ten thousand copies of it were sold before the season closed [ibid., p. 96]’ (Life ii. 48 n. 2). 26. The Provok’d Husband, a play by Sir John Vanbrugh (1664–1726), adapted and completed by Colley Cibber (1671– 1757). The play was brought out at Drury Lane in 1728 (Oxford DNB, s.v. Sir John Vanbrugh). That JB was familiar with and enjoyed this play appears in his use of a playful allusion to it in a conversation with the Duke of Queensberry, while seeking his patronage, in London on 20 Jan. 1763 (LJ 1762–63, pp. 109, 405 n. 7). 27. A character in Goldsmith’s GoodNatured Man. 28. In Rambler, Vol. 2, No. 59. Suspirius is parodied as a habitual complainer. 29. In The Provok’d Husband, ‘Sir Francis Wronghead is a country squire who spends half his fortune to be elected to Parliament, and at once brings his family up to London, all of whom hope to make their fortune overnight. His kinsman, Manly, preserves them from their folly by his secret intervention’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 159 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 149 n. 7).

30. By Benjamin Hoadly. Ranger, the young law student at the Temple, as noted above (p. 213 n. 4), was one of the young JB’s favourite stage characters. 31. The matter was governed by Scots law, under which the presumption of filiation was explained as follows: ‘Filiation is presumed from marriage, whereby the children are presumed to be the lawful children of those who are proved to be married’ (Stair, Tit. XLV, XX (p. 735)). 32. Sir John Stewart (for whom, see pp. 329–30 n. 42) ‘died on 14th June, 1764, having on 7th June made a solemn declaration before five persons that Archibald Douglas was his only surviving son by his late wife, Lady Jane Douglas’ (Douglas Cause, p. 16). Lady Jane Douglas and Helen Hewit also made death-bed declarations (speech of Lord Pitfour in Douglas Cause, p. 91). 33. For JB’s Essence, see Introduction, pp. 24–26 34. In Aug. 1763, SJ had accompanied JB to Harwich, on the Essex coast, from where JB was to sail to Holland to study at Utrecht (Life i. 464–72; Journ. 5–6 Aug. 1763, LJ 1762–63, pp. 301–04). When SJ had spontaneously announced, on 30 July, that he would go with him from London and see him off, JB recorded that this ‘prodigious mark of his affection filled me with gratitude & Vanity’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 297). JB would report further in the Life that SJ, while at Colchester on the way to Harwich, had ‘flattered me with some hopes that he would, in the course of the following summer, come over to Holland, and accompany me in a tour through the Netherlands’ (Life i. 470). 35. SJ had first raised this idea (eventually to be realized in 1773) about five years earlier in conversation on 22 July 1763 at the Turk’s Head coffeehouse in London. ‘He said he wished to visit the western isles of Scotland & would go thither with me, when I returned from abroad, unless some very good Companion should offer when I was absent; which he did not think probable’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 289).

282

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 282

27/02/23 6:14 PM

27 march 1768 36. The Rev. Kenneth Macaulay (1723/4–1779), in his work The History of St. Kilda, 1764, had stated, on pp. 200–06, that the islanders had reported that every time a boat landed they came down with a severe cold or cough. Although initially suspicious of the truth of this, he considered that this was corroborated by the fact that all the islanders became ill with a cold a few days after he had landed on the island. JB and SJ would visit Macaulay at his manse at Cawdor during their tour to the Hebrides in 1773. SJ was persuaded from Macaulay’s conversation that he had not written the book, for, said SJ, ‘there was a combination

in it of which Macaulay was not capable’ (Journ. 27 Aug. 1773, Hebrides, p. 86). However, it appears that the work was largely written by Macaulay, but was revised by the Rev. Dr. John Macpherson, minister of Sleat, Isle of Skye (Life v. 505–07). ‘It is believed today that what is most useful about the book, the descriptive and topographical parts, were . . . written by Macaulay, but that the antiquarian or speculative passages were by [Macpherson]’ (Black, p. 483 n. 220). 37. MS. ‘But I was still apprehensive . . . though without infection’ scored off with a modern pen.

Sunday 27 March [Notes] Break[fasted] Smith[,] dind goldencross with F. S. Coffee Inn J. Cochrane[,]1 supt home Johns[on] & Chamb[ers] then Johns[on] & Scotmen[.] [J.] I sent a card to Dr. Smith the Anatomy Professour & Physician here,2 that if it was convenient I would come and breakfast with him. I was made wellcome. So I went & found him just as he was in 1763 when poor Sir James MacDonald3 made me acquainted with him only he was now become Professour, & had a very elegant house. Dr. Smith is a Maybole man. He had a sister who had come up two years ago, & was our Landlady.4 Various topicks of conversation employed us. He is a great foe to Johnson & an admirer of Hume; but can bear my admiration of Mr. Johnson very well. After breakfast, we went to Christ Church,5 where he introduced me to Frank Steuart[,] Lord Eglintoune’s Nephew, a very pretty young man treading in the steps of Sir James MacDonald.6 I went to St. Mary’s7 to hear the Sermon before the University of Oxford which has often filled me with a grand idea. But this institution is become a matter of mere form, & although all the Preachers in the University must have this office in their turns, they are allowed to employ others to officiate for them, to whom they give three guineas apiece and it is generally performed by men who have no reputation to lose, and are indifferent how they are received. The Shew of Vice Chancellor[,] Proctors[,] Masters of arts &c was well enough; but there were but few Students there. A Dr. Blackstone who had been a Physician preached.8 He gave us a good sensible common sermon. After sermon, I went back to Mr. Stewart. He & I ordered dinner at the Golden Cross,9 and then went and walked in the venerable shade. I found he was a great admirer of my Book, and was quite a Corsican. He resolved to visit that Island; and I promised him a letter to Paoli. We talked of Mr. Johnson. He esteemed him highly for his learning and genius; but in the usual way of many people found fault with his language. He mentioned the Ridicule of it called Lexiphanes written by one Campbell.10 Sir said I, nothing can be more unfair. 283

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 283

27/02/23 6:14 PM

27 march 1768 Mr. Johnson’s language is suitable to his sentiment. He gives large words because he has large ideas. If Campbell clothes little paultry ideas with these big words, to be sure the effect must be ridiculous. The late King of Prussia’s tall Regiment looked very stately with their large grenadier caps.11 If Campbell had taken these caps and clapped them on the heads of a parcel of blackguard children in the street, it would be highly ridiculous; but does that prove any thing against the caps when properly applied.12 No Sir. Mr. Johnson has gigantick thoughts, and therefore he must be allowed gigantick words. This was quite in Mr. Johnson’s own stile. Mr. Stewart talked like a man of reflection and principle. He approved of my sentiment[,] ‘Better occasional murders, than frequent adulteries,’13 and14 expatiated on the destruction of the nobler kinds of happiness, confidence[,] family-affection &c which profligacy occasioned. We dined well at the Golden Cross; and had a serious & affecting conversation about Sir James MacDonald. We then adjourned to my Inn, and had tea & coffee. I sent for Lord Dundonald’s son James who was of Baliol College.15 He came & sat a while with us. Mr. Stewart was desirous to see Mr. Johnson. So I asked him to be of my party at supper, upon his promising to be very quiet and submissive. He left me a while to myself when I indulged most agreable thoughts of the good spirits & fortunate circumstances in many respects, which were now my lot. About nine Mr. Johnson, Mr. Chambers and Mr. Stewart assembled. We had a good supper, & madeira & warm port negus.16 Mr. Johnson expatiated on the advantages of Oxford for learning as there is there such a progressive emulation. The Tutors are anxious to have their Pupils appear well in the College. The Colleges are anxious to have their students appear well in the University. There are all opportunities of Books and learned men; there are no avocations. There are excellent rules of discipline in every college. I objected that the rules & indeed the whole system is very ill observed. Why Sir said he, that is nothing against the Institution. The members of an university may for a season be unmindful of their duty. I am arguing for the excellency of the Institution. He was right. Indeed I can conceive nothing nobler in the way of learning & science than Oxford. If they who are there neglect the means, it is their own absurdity; it is their own loss. The means are allways there for such as will use them. But the expence is great. No young man can do with less than £100 a year; and if he takes the rank of a Gentleman Commoner it will cost him £200 a year.17 But this rank is of no real service to his education, excepting that it puts him among young people of better fortune who may be of use to him afterwards. I spoke of Guthrie.18 Sir said Mr. Johnson, he has parts. He has no great regular fund of knowledge, but by reading so long & writing so long he no doubt has picked up a good deal. The great man still retained his prejudice against Scotland. The night before, He told us he had lately been a long while at Litchfield but had wearied sadly. I wonder at that, said I. It is your native place. Why said he, so is Scotland your native place. This night I talked of our advances in literature. Sir said he you have learnt a little from us, and you think yourselves very great men. Hume I knew he would abuse. Sir said he Hume would never have written History, had not Voltaire written it before him. He is an echo of Voltaire.19 But Sir said I we have Lord Kames. You have Lord Kames said he; keep him ha! ha! ha! we dont envy you20 him.21 284

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 284

27/02/23 6:14 PM

27 march 1768 Do you ever see Dr. Robertson?22 Yes. Does the Dog ever talk of me? Indeed he does & loves you.23 He said the severest thing of Robertson without intending it; for I pushed him to say what he thought of Robertson’s History. Sir said he I love Robertson, and I wont talk of his Book. He was very hard on poor Dr. Blair whom he holds wonderfully cheap for having written a Dissertation on Ossian.24 Talking of the future life of Brutes, Sir said he if you allow Blair’s soul to be immortal, why not allow a Dog to be imortal? I wanted much to defend the pleasing system of Brutes existing in the other world. Mr. Johnson who does not like to hear any ideas of futurity but what are in the Thirty Nine Articles25 was out of humour with me, & watched his time to give me a blow. So when I with a serious metaphysical pensive face, ventured to say,26 But really Sir when we see a very sensible dog we know not what to think27 of him, He28 turned about & growling with joy replied No Sir and when we see a very foolish fellow, we dont know what to think29 of him. Then up he got, bounced along, & stood by the fire laughing, and exulting over me, while I took it to myself & had only to say well but you do not know what to think of a very sensible dog. About twelve they left me. 1. MS. ‘c’ in Cochrane interlined. 2. John Smith (1719–96), bap. at Maybole, Ayrshire, 29 Nov. 1719 (OPRBB), son of William Smith, merchant in Maybole, and Agnes Laurie, daughter of Rev. John Laurie (or Lawrie), minister of Auchinleck until his death in 1710 (parish record of her marriage to William Smith at Maybole in June 1716 (OPRBM); Fasti Scot. iii. 3), and a sister of Rev. James Laurie, minister of Kirkmichael, matriculated University of Glasgow 1736 (Addison, #554, p. 16), matriculated Balliol College, Oxford, 1744, B.A. 1748, M.A. 1750–51, B.Med. 1753, D.Med. (St. Mary Hall) 1757, Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford 1766–96, also lecturer in Chemistry (Alum. Oxon. iv. 1316; Royal Kal., p. 228). On 5 Mar. 1769 he would marry Lucy Tindal (Ancestry, London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P78/ALF/032; Oxford Journal, 11 Mar. 1769), who died on 3 July 1797 (Oxford Journal, 8 July 1797). He ‘was Savilian Professor of Geometry for over 30 years . . . without being a mathematician of any sort – he taught anatomy and chemistry – and without being in residence for the time he spent as a physician in Chelten-

ham’ (Fauvel, ‘Georgian Oxford’, pp. 155– 56). He would be among the ‘distinguished physicians associated with the beginnings of the Radcliffe Infirmary’, being elected as one of its original staff when it opened in 1770 (Simcock, p. 9), and would serve as physician to the Infirmary until 1782 (). JB had met Smith during his visit to Oxford in Apr. 1763 and had referred to him as ‘a learned clever agreable Man’ (Journ. 24 Apr. 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 204). JB would meet him again in Sept. 1769 (Journ. 9 Sept. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 303, McGraw-Hill p. 285) and also in Mar. 1776, when JB would write that Smith ‘indecently talks as an unbeliever’ and ‘was full of the praises of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, just published’ (Journ. 20 Mar. 1776, Ominous Years, p. 282). In 1783, he would remove to Bath, having been appointed one of the physicians at the General Hospital there (The Medical Register for the Year 1783, pp. 104– 05). Smith died on 24 Oct. 1796 (Oxford Journal, 29 Oct. 1796). 3. Sir James Macdonald (c. 1742–66), 8th Bt. of Sleat (or Slate), on the Isle of Skye. He was only about twenty-four when

285

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 285

27/02/23 6:14 PM

27 march 1768 he died. When JB met him in 1763 he was studying at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 9 May 1759 (Alum. Oxon. iii. 891)). He was ‘an accomplished scholar and mathematician’ (Comp. Bar. ii. 292), was ‘widely admired for his learning while a scholar at Eton’ and later at Oxford (LJ 1762–63, p. 339 n. 6), and ‘had been considered a young man of brilliant promise because he united scholarly attainments and the accomplishments of a man of the world’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 161 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 150 n. 1). 4. Probably John Smith’s half-sister, Janet Smith, bap. at Maybole 24 Sept. 1738, daughter of William Smith, merchant in Maybole, and his second wife, Janet Smith (OPRBB). In the parish record of John Smith’s marriage on 5 Mar. 1769, ‘Jennet Smith’ is named as one of the two witnesses (Ancestry, London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P78/ALF/032). JB uses the word ‘landlady’ in the sense of a housekeeper (SOED) or hostess (OED, 3). Smith was in St. Mary Hall when JB met him in 1763 (Journ. 23 Apr. 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 204), and it seems that on his appointment as Savilian Professor of Geometry in 1766 he moved into the ‘very elegant house’ and that his half-sister Janet (or Jennet) came to join him and serve as his housekeeper (and was hostess at JB’s breakfast meeting with Smith). The house stood in New College Lane. For an account of the two houses here assigned to Oxford’s Savilian professors, see Bell, ‘Savilian Professors’ Houses’. Smith was one of ‘eight successive Savilian Professors of Geometry’ who ‘occupied the western of the two houses’ (ibid., p. 184). 5. Christ Church College, founded as Cardinal College by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525, re-founded in 1532 as King Henry VIII’s College, and renamed Christ Church in 1546, stands between St. Aldate’s Street and Oriel Street. ‘Everything is spacious at Christ Church, the largest quad at Oxford [and] the largest single [eighteenth-century]

building’ (Oxfordshire, p. 109). At the time of JB’s visit, the west side was being rebuilt and would include a fine library, which would be completed in 1772 (HCO 3, pp. 228, 231, 233, 235). 6. Francis (‘Frank’) Stewart (d. 1768) was Sir James Macdonald’s first cousin, ‘and like him died young’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 161 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 150 n. 1). His father was Francis Stewart (d. 1760), son of Francis Stewart (d. 1739), 7th Earl of Moray, and his mother was Helen Montgomerie (1712–47), younger sister of Alexander Montgomerie, 10th Earl of Eglinton (Scots Peer. iii. 456, vi. 324). He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, 9 July 1766, aged nineteen (Alum. Oxon. iv. 1368). JB’s brother David ‘admired Stewart extremely: “I never came into the room where he was”, he wrote to [JB] (28 April 1767), “but I trembled as if some superior being had been present. I know you wonder that I should rave so much about this young man, but I must say that I never did see one appear in my eyes to that advantage in conversation that he did the few times I was in company with him”’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 161 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 150 n. 1). 7. St. Mary’s Church, in the High Street, the parish church of Oxford. It has a late thirteenth-century north tower and a ‘splendid’ early fourteenth-century spire, ‘more crocketed than any other’, giving an ‘exuberant display’. The rest of the church was ‘almost entirely rebuilt on a large scale’ in the fifteenth century. Built in the Perpendicular style, it is a ‘stately church by any parish church standard’, and until about 1669 this was where the university’s ceremonies were held. Until about 1488, the university’s first library was kept in the room above the part of the church called the Congregation House (‘the oldest surviving library building in England’) (Oxfordshire, pp. 24, 30, 283–84). 8. Dr. Henry Blackstone (d. 1776), matriculated Trinity College, Oxford, 1740, B.A. New College, 1744, M.A., 1748,

286

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 286

27/02/23 6:14 PM

27 march 1768 licensed to practise medicine 1750, B.Med., 1751, later vicar of Adderbury, Oxfordshire (Alum. Oxon. i. 118). 9. The Golden Cross, an ancient inn established near the end of the twelfth century, stood in Cornmarket Street and was owned by New College (Cooper, pp. 25, 27, 34; Crossley, p. 95; Selwyn, pp. 436–37). ‘[I]n the 17th and 18th centuries it was second only to the Angel’ (Selwyn, p. 437). 10. Archibald Campbell (c. 1724–80), Scottish satirist, appointed purser in the navy in 1761. In about 1764, he wrote the satirical prose work Lexiphanes, a Dialogue. Imitated from Lucian, and suited to the present Times. Being An Attempt to restore the English Tongue to its ancient Purity, published anonymously in 1767. ‘Lexiphanes is a lengthy satire attacking Johnson (“this great unlick’d Cub”) for both his pedantic language and his dictionary-making. In the dialogue Lexiphanes (Johnson) first holds forth with great length and pomposity, and then is purged by vomiting of his excessive language by a critic and two physicians. It enjoyed some popularity; three further editions appeared (1767, 1774, 1783), and it was itself imitated’ (Oxford DNB). Ramsay of Ochtertyre wrote that Campbell’s morals ‘were as bad as his principles, so that he died wretched and unlamented’ (Ramsay, i. 268 n. 1). 11. Frederick William I (1688–1740), King of Prussia, had a regiment of grenadiers which was made up of exceptionally tall men who were recruited throughout Europe (EB, xix. 836). 12. ‘This is so much like a passage in Longinus, On the Sublime, as to point to a conscious or unconscious adaptation: “For dressing up a trifling subject in grand and exalted expressions makes the same ridiculous appearance as the enormous mask of a tragedian would do upon the diminutive face of an infant” (trans. William Smith, 2nd ed., 1742, p. 71)’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 162 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 151 n. 2). During the academic year

1756–57 at Edinburgh University, JB had attended lectures on Longinus given by John Stevenson (for whom, see pp. 240–41 n. 5) in the classes on belles lettres (Pottle, ‘Boswell’s University Education’, pp. 237 and 239–40). 13. In An Account of Corsica, JB had written ‘Better occasional murders than frequent adulteries. Better cut off a rotten branch now and then, than that the whole of society should be corrupted’ (Corsica, p. 217; Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 131). ‘This “sentiment” was much ridiculed by the reviewers. [JB]’s temporary separation from Mrs. Dodds at the time he wrote this section of the book probably added fervour to his denunciation of adultery’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 162 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 152 n. 3). 14. MS. ‘adulteries.’ and’. 15. Hon. James Atholl Cochrane (1751–1823), son of Thomas Cochrane, 8th Earl of Dundonald, and his second wife, Jean (Stuart) (Scots Peer. iii. 358–60), matriculated Balliol College 28 Nov. 1767 (aged sixteen), later vicar of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, rector of Longhorsley, Northumberland, 1792 (Alum. Oxon. i. 269). 16. ‘Negus, a popular warm mildly alcoholic beverage, involving wine (usually port or sherry) mixed with hot water, and sweetened and flavoured, [is] said to have been invented by and named after Colonel Francis Negus (1670–1732) of the 25th ([Edinburgh]) Regiment of Foot, MP for Ipswich 1717–32’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 328 n. 16). 17. A gentleman-commoner was a member of ‘a privileged class of undergraduates formerly recognized in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge’ (SOED). 18. William Guthrie. 19. David Hume’s six-volume The History of England, From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the revolution in 1688 had appeared in 1762. For Voltaire’s Essai sur l’histoire générale, et sur les mœurs et l’esprit des nations, depuis Charlemagne jusqu’à nos jours, see p. 53 n. 23. ‘Many of Hume’s

287

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 287

27/02/23 6:14 PM

27 march 1768 early readers, including [Tobias] Smollett, believed that Hume wrote his History in imitation of Voltaire . . . Hume, though, had none of Voltaire’s reforming zeal, neither in religion nor in politics . . . He was even more sceptical than [Jean-Jacques] Rousseau himself was as to the possibility of a writer’s doing anything to change and improve the world in which he lived’ (Harris, p. 21). 20. MS. ‘you’ interlined. 21. For Henry Home, Lord Kames, see pp. 112–13 n. 18. 22. Dr. William Robertson (1721–93), historian and Church of Scotland minister, D.D. (Aberdeen, 1764), appointed Principal of Edinburgh University in 1762 (Oxford DNB). ‘Described as “the foremost historian in eighteenth-century Scotland” with a “lucid and elegant” style, it has been said that his History of Scotland during the Reigns of Queen Mary and James VI (1759) “was a remarkable book for its time and probably the best ‘national’ history then in existence” (Ferguson, Scotland: 1689 to the Present [1978], p. 215). His later major works, the three-volume History of the Reign of Charles V (1769) and the two-volume History of America (1777), added to his renown, the latter work being referred to as his tour de force and “the standard authority in English until the middle of the nineteenth century” (Lynch, Scotland: A New History [1992], p. 349). He was the leader of the “Moderate” party in the Church of Scotland and was appointed Moderator of the General Assembly in 1763. “His works, translated into all the main European languages, brought him fame throughout Europe and considerable

income, but his lasting achievement was the growth under his principalship of the University of Edinburgh. In the late seventeenth century, it had [had] some 400 students; by 1789, its numbers were almost 1,100” (ibid., p. 349)’ (BEJ, p. 104 n. 12). 23. SJ and Robertson would meet during SJ’s visit to Edinburgh in 1773 (Journ. 15–16 Aug. 1773, Hebrides, pp. 18–26). 24. Dr. Hugh Blair. In 1761, the Scottish poet James Macpherson (1736–96) had published to enormous popular acclaim his Fingal, purportedly being translations by him of original ancient Gaelic poetry by Ossian, son of Fingal. In 1763, Blair published A Critical Dissertation on the poems of Ossian, the Son of Fingal, which ‘immediately made his international reputation as a literary critic’. However, many, including SJ and David Hume, doubted the authenticity of Macpherson’s work. Blair brought out a second edition of his Critical Dissertation in 1765. ‘It also had an appendix containing testimonial evidence regarding the authenticity of Macpherson’s Ossianic poetry . . . But it could not quell the controversy over the extent of Ossian’s authenticity, which is still being disputed more than two hundred years later’ (Oxford DNB). 25. Drawn up by the Church of England in convocation in 1563, the Thirtynine Articles are statements of the Church’s beliefs and doctrines. 26. MS. Comma interlined. 27. MS. Word deleted (possibly ‘make’), and ‘think’ written above. 28. MS. ‘him. He’. 29. MS. Word deleted (possibly ‘make’), and ‘think’ written above.

Monday 28 March [Notes] Break[fasted] F S.[,] dind Smith[,] Dr Wilmot &c[.] Then Bodleian[,] then supt Chambers. [J.] I breakfasted with Mr. Stewart.1 Then he & I went to Mr. Chambers’s & found him and Mr. Johnson drinking tea. I talked of the Scorpion killing itself when encircled with hot coals. Mr. Johnson said that Maupertuis2 is of opinion that it 288

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 288

27/02/23 6:14 PM

28 march 1768 does not kill itself, but dies of the heat & that it’s clapping its tail to it’s head is merely a convulsion from the excessive pain, & it does not sting itself. I told him I had often tried the experiment, that it ran round & round & finding no outlet, retired to the center & like a true Stoick Philosopher gave itself the fatal sting to free itself from its woes. ‘This will end ’em.’3 I said it was a curious fact as it shewed suicide in an insect.4 Mr. Johnson would not admit the fact. I said I would write to the great Morgagni the Anatomist,5 and get him to examine the head of one, after the experiment & to tell whether it was stung or not. Mr. Johnson said the report of Morgagni would convince him. I shall certainly try to get it. Mr. Johnson said that the Woodcocks fly over to the northern countries which is proved because they have been observed at sea. He said Swallows certainly sleep all the winter, many of them conglobulate themselves6 by flying round & round, & then all in a heap throw themselves under water, and lie in the bed of a river. This appeared strange to me. I know not if Mr. Johnson was well founded in it.7 Our conversation was quite on natural philosophy. Mr. Johnson told us one of his first essays was a latin poem on the glow worm.8 I then talked of law and of our courts of justice in Scotland, of which I gave them a very good account. I found that having been two years a Lawyer in real business had given me great force. I could not be sensible of it, while living allways with the same people. But I felt it when I was with Mr. Johnson. Mr. Stewart went home with me. Ryal an honest Irishman who had studied civil law with me at Glasgow came & saw me. He was now become a Divine.9 We all three went to dine at Dr. Smith’s. He had several more company, among the rest Dr. Wilmot of Trinity, a pleasant jovial parson who loves hunting and a glass dearly.10 He was well acquainted with Mr. Johnson, & said he submitted patiently to be bruised by him, in order to enjoy his conversation. Dr. Smith was truly hospitable & civil. I had neglected in the morning to go & see the Bodleian Library11 which I had not seen when formerly at Oxford.12 Dr. Smith got one of the underkeepers to shew me it, this afternoon, a Mr. Hall of Jesus[,] a Welchman.13 It is indeed a grand & venerable sight. I often repeated Mr. Johnson’s line O’er Bodley’s dome14 his future labours spread.15 I was shewn a few very fine old editions of Books, & some rich manuscripts on vellum & illuminated. I must return, and stay a month at Oxford, some vacation, & enjoy it in calmness.16 Mr. Stewart and I were invited to sup with Mr. Chambers. When we went, it was about eight. I had drank tea with Mr. Stewart in an Oxford Coffeehouse, while he listened to a wonderful variety of anecdotes which I gave him. Said he, you are an extraordinary man, & have had extraordinary good fortune in meeting with such a singular variety. It has been said that Mr. Johnson is a walking Library. You are a walking collection of men. Mr. Chambers was not come in when we came to his house. Mr. Johnson came & entertained us, bowed & said your servant gentlemen, & was really courteous. The house is a good one & genteely furnished. We talked of the Chinese and Russians. Mr. Johnson advised me to read Bell’s travels.17 I asked him if I should read Du Halde’s China.18 Why yes, said he[,] as one reads such a Book[,] that is to say consult it. When Mr. Chambers came 289

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 289

27/02/23 6:14 PM

28 march 1768 we had a good supper. Mr. Johnson was excellent company. He laughed a good deal. I really found him more cheerful and gay. His mixing more in society had dissipated much of that gloom which hung upon his mind when he lived much alone, when he brooded in the Temple.19 I forgot to put down two things in former evenings, one that he shewed plainly that a General Warrant must at times be granted by all governments, but they must do it at their peril; so that all the noise about Wilkes was idle, except as to some irregularities; the other thing was a fine specimen of his contriving allways to have the superiority. When Mr. Chambers was getting the better of him in an argument, he said to him as to a Boy, My dear Chambers take it to you, take it to you, since you will have it so, as if he made a concession to please him, when in reality he did not know how to answer him. We talked of Adultery. Mr. Johnson shewed how highly criminal it was because it broke the peace of families & introduced confusion of progeny; these constitute the essence of the crime & therefore a woman who breaks her marriage vows is so much more criminal than a man. A man to be sure is criminal in the sight of God; but he does not do his wife a very material injury if he does not insult her; if for instance from mere wantoness of appetite he steals privately to her chambermaid. Sir a wife ought not greatly to resent this. I should not receive home a daughter who had run away from her husband on that account. A Wife should study to reclaim her husband by more attention to please him. Sir a man will not once in a hundred instances leave his wife & go to a harlot, if his wife has not been negligent of pleasing. Upon my word said I He is grown liberal upon our hand. But said Mr. Chambers suppose a Husband goes awhoring & then poxes his wife. Why Sir if he poxes her, it is a bodily injury & she may resent it as she pleases.20 I asked him if it was not hard that one deviation from chastity should so absolutely ruin a woman. ‘Why no Sir the great principle which every woman is taught is to keep her legs together.21 When she has given up that principle, she has given up every notion of female honour & virtue which are all included in chastity.’ I argued that virtue might be found even in a common street walker. He laughed, & as I had told him of my dutch lady,22 ‘Why23 (said he) I shall have the dutch Lady. You can get a wife in the streets.’ I told him my objections to the Dutch Lady were her superiour talents. O Sir (said he) you need not be afraid: marry her; before a year goes about youll find that reason much weaker & that wit not near so bright.’ O! admirable master of human nature! He praised Baretti.24 ‘His Account of Italy is a very entertaining Book; and Sir I know no man who carrys his head higher in conversation than Baretti. There are strong powers in his mind. He has not indeed so many hooks as he might have had; but so far as his hooks reach, he lays hold of objects very forcibly.’ This was another good night. How different was I from what I was when I last saw Mr. Johnson in London, when I was still wavering & often clouded.25 I am now serene and steady. I took leave of the company being to set out next morning. 1. Frank Stewart. 2. Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698–1759), French philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, proponent

of the principle of least action in nature. Schopenhauer would express the view that Kant’s ‘most important and brilliant doctrine, that of the ideality of space and of the

290

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 290

27/02/23 6:14 PM

28 march 1768 merely phenomenal existence of the corporeal world, [was] expressed already thirty years previously by Maupertuis’ (WWR, ii. 52). Maupertuis, a great favourite of Frederick the Great of Prussia, was president of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin from 1745 to 1753 (EB, xiv. 1123). 3. Correctly, ‘This must end ’em’ (Addison, Cato, V. 1. 20), being words Cato uses ‘as he lays his hand on his sword’ (Life ii. 54 n. 2). 4. This is a myth and, indeed, nonsensical, as a scorpion has immunity from its own venom. The reality is that ‘the scorpion’s co-ordination rapidly deteriorates with the heat of the flames. It defends itself by lashing out wildly with its tail. It may indeed sting itself during this time. Death results from the heat of the fire and not from a self-inflicted sting’ (Leeming, p. 15). 5. Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682– 1771), Italian anatomist, renowned for his work on morbid anatomy, De Sedibus et Causis Morborum per Anatomen Indagatis (1761) (EB, xv. 836–37). No letter by JB to Morgagni has been reported. 6. Although SJ did not include ‘conglobulate’ in his Dictionary (only ‘conglobe’ and ‘conglobate’), the SOED cites him (no doubt on the basis of this passage and the equivalent passage in Life ii. 55) as authority for the use of the word, meaning to ‘collect into a rounded or compact mass’. 7. Gilbert White, in The Natural History of Selborne, writing on 4 Nov. 1767 (letter XII), cited the Swedish naturalist Alexander Berger, who, in his work Calendarium Florae (1756), asserted that from the beginning of September swallows hibernated under water. White mentioned that he himself had observed that in autumn swallows would roost at night in osier-beds on islands in the river, and he expressed the view that ‘this resorting towards that element, at that season of the year, seems to give some countenance to the northern opinion (strange as it is) of their retiring under water’. However, the belief in the hibernation of swallows is ‘a misapprehen-

sion as old as Aristotle, who offered it in his Historia Animalium in the fourth century B.C.’ (Quammen, p. 201). 8. In Life ii. 55, JB says, ‘I am sorry I did not ask where [the essay] was to be found.’ 9. Samuel Riall (1741–1822), born in Clonmel, County Tipperary, matriculated St. Mary Hall 10 Oct. 1761 (aged twenty), B.C.L. 1768 (Alum. Oxon. iii. 1190). His prior studies at the University of Glasgow had evidently overlapped with JB’s study of Civil Law there in 1759–60. ‘At that time, the buildings of the University of Glasgow were situated round College Green, off the High Street, and contained some of the most noteworthy examples of seventeenth-century Scottish architecture . . . The Professor of Civil Law at Glasgow, Dr Hercules Lindsay, who published nothing and is now unknown, was described by [JB] as “very able” and one of the “best teachers I ever saw” [To JJ, 11 Jan 1760, Corr. 1, p. 7], and he was evidently the first Professor to deliver lectures on Roman Law in English rather than Latin’ (LPJB 1, p. xli). Riall was ordained deacon on 21 Sept. 1766, and ordained priest on 20 Dec. 1767. In 1769, he would become domestic chaplain to Mary (Fitzmaurice) Petty (d. 1780), Dowager Countess of Shelburne and Baroness Wycombe (CCED) (widow of John Petty (d. 1761), 1st Earl of Shelburne, and mother of William Petty (1737–1805), the 2nd Earl, who would be First Lord of the Treasury (Prime Minister) 1782–83 and was created Marquis of Lansdowne 1784 (Comp. Peer. vii. 437–38, xi. 670–71)). He would marry Elizabeth Miles in 1770 (), and would return to Ireland, where he would become rector of Killenaule (Burke’s Landed Gentry, 6th ed, i. 86, s.v. ‘Barton of Grove’). 10. James Wilmot (d. 1807), matriculated Trinity College 3 June 1742 (aged sixteen), B.A. 1745, fellow, M.A. 1748, B.D. 1756, D.D. 1760, later rector of Barton-onthe-Heath, Warwickshire, 1780, vicar of Alcester (Alum. Oxon. iv. 1579).

291

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 291

27/02/23 6:14 PM

28 march 1768 11. The Bodleian Library, of international renown, was founded by Sir Thomas Bodley (1545–1613) in 1598. Bodley decided to renovate the old fifteenthcentury Duke Humphrey library, situated over the Divinity School, and to furnish the new library with a large collection of books. The new library was inaugurated in 1602 with over 2,000 books, stored ‘on the shelves of its impressive three-decker book presses in the beautifully restored fifteenth-century room’ (Clapinson, p. 9). The ceiling, assumed to have been designed by Bodley himself, ‘remains one of the finest features of his magnificent library room. The ceiling is divided into square panels on which are painted the arms of the university with, at the intersections of the ribs, shields displaying Bodley’s own arms’ (ibid., p. 8). In 1610, Bodley reached an agreement with the Stationers’ Company whereby a copy of every book entered at Stationers’ Hall should be given to the library (Oxfordshire, p. 260), and by the time of his death the library contained ‘some fifteen thousand separate works’ (Clapinson, p. 24). An extension to the library (called ‘Arts End’) was completed in 1612 and had an innovative design, the walls being ‘shelved from floor to ceiling, with a gallery giving access to the upper half’ and the desks being ‘at right angles to the walls between the windows, making best use of available natural light for reading’ (ibid., pp. 23–24). In 1613, work began on the construction of three additional ranges of buildings which would form a quadrangle known as the Schools Quadrangle (ibid., p. 24), which was completed in 1624 and ‘is a formidable building and without parallel in the spectacular architecture of those years’ (Oxfordshire, p. 260). In 1747, a Welshman, Humphrey Owen, was appointed librarian, but he died in Mar. 1768, the very month of JB’s visit to Oxford. He was succeeded by John Price, who was ‘one of five graduates of Jesus College and five Welshmen whom Owen had appointed as sub-librarians’ (Clapinson, pp. 72, 80).

12. JB had been in Oxford from 23 to 26 April 1763 (LJ 1762–63, pp. 203–07). 13. Benjamin Hall (d. 1825), matriculated Jesus College 26 Mar. 1760 (aged seventeen), B.A. 1764, M.A. 1766, B.D. 1774, D.D. 1796, minister of Coedgernew, and St. Bride’s, Wentloog, Monmouthshire, 1788, rector of Marcross, Glamorganshire, 1820, prebendary of Llandaff, 1796 (Alum. Oxon. ii. 586). 14. ‘Bodley’s dome’ is not a reference to the Radcliffe Camera, the ‘spectacular dome-shaped building (the first circular library in Great Britain)’, which was completed in 1749 to the designs of James Gibbs (1682–1754) (Clapinson, p. 71), and which today is such a distinctive feature of the Bodleian Library. The Radcliffe Camera did not form part of the Bodleian until 1862, when it was donated to the library and became a reading room (ibid., pp. 104–05). The word ‘dome’ was commonly used by poets for any large building (VHW, p. 19). 15. VHW, line 139 (on p. 8). 16. JB would visit Oxford again, with SJ, in Mar. 1776 (Journ. 19–20 Mar. 1776, Ominous Years, pp. 276–83) and in June 1784 (Journ. 3 June 1784, Applause, p. 227). 17. Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to diverse parts of Asia, Glasgow, 1763, by John Bell (1691–1780) of Antermony (in Campsie parish, Stirlingshire). The Travels, in two volumes, were printed ‘for the author’ by the Foulis brothers, in Glasgow (ESTC T99651). Bell was engaged in the service of Tsar Peter I and took part in diplomatic missions to Persia and China. ‘Bell’s account of the journey to Kazan and through Siberia to China is the most complete and interesting part of his travels. Of particular note are his descriptions of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese wall, and his residence in Peking’ (Oxford DNB). 18. Published in 1735, a four-volume French work by Jean-Baptiste Du Halde (1674–1743), a French Jesuit. The work contained a description of China based on letters and reports from Jesuit missionaries working there. There were two English

292

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 292

27/02/23 6:14 PM

29 march 1768 translations, The General History of China, 1736, translated by Richard Brookes, and A Description of the Empire of China and Chinese-Tartary, Together with the Kingdoms of Korea, and Tibet, 1738–41, translated by William Guthrie and the geographer John Green (Crone, pp. 85, 87–89) and published in two volumes by Edward Cave, proprietor of the Gent. Mag. This was Cave’s ‘first major independent publication’ (Kaminski, p. 8). For SJ’s close involvement with Cave and the Gent. Mag. at this time, see Kaminski, pp. 8, 46–47, 66–67, 70. 19. When JB visited SJ on 24 May 1763, SJ resided at chambers on the first floor of No. 1, Inner Temple Lane (Life i. 395). Here, JB wrote, ‘he lives in literary state, very solemn and very slovenly’ (Journ. 24 May 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 229). 20. MS. ‘But said Mr. Chambers . . . resent it as she pleases’ scored off with a modern pen. 21. MS. ‘Why no Sir . . . keep her legs together’ scored off with a modern pen. 22. Belle de Zuylen. 23. MS. ‘lady. ‘Why’. 24. Giuseppe Marc’ Antonio Baretti (1719–89), ‘critic and miscellaneous writer, friend and translator of [SJ]’ (Corr. 5, p. 40 n. 4). JB had first met him in Venice on 7 July 1765 (Mem. 8 July 1765, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 103, McGraw-Hill p. 98).

‘[B]y the autumn of 1766 [Baretti] had settled in London, where he had become well known for his Dictionary of the Italian and English Languages in 1760’ (Corr. 5, p. 40 n. 4). Baretti’s two-volume An Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy; with Observations on the Mistakes of some Travellers with Regard to that Country was published in Feb. 1768. ‘The initial run of 800 copies sold out, and a second edition followed in 1769. Baretti’s book attacked views about Italy promulgated by Roger Ascham’s Scholemaster and Richard Steele’s The Conscious Lovers (2nd ed. i 294, ii 138–42), but his main target was . . . Samuel Sharp’s acerbic Letters from Italy, Describing the Customs and Manners of that Country, in the Years 1765 and 1766 (1766)’ (ibid., p. 250 n. 2). 25. JB had last seen SJ in London in Feb. 1766 after JB’s return from the grand tour. JB had said, ‘I fear I shall not be a good advocate,’ to which SJ had replied: ‘Why, Sir, to be sure you will not be a good advocate at first, and, Sir, no man is a good advocate at first; and perhaps in seven years you will not be so good a lawyer as your father, and perhaps never. But it is better to be a tolerable lawyer than no lawyer, and, Sir, you will always see multitudes below you’ (Mem. 13 Feb. 1766, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 298, McGraw-Hill p. 282).

Tuesday 29 March [Notes] Off early alone — Jolly Justice half a stage — Eaton — Windsor [ — ] Brentford1 — Home — sallied[.] Kitty2 — Borrowed from Mathew[.]3 Raged — Then Dun’s[,]4 left watch & purse & had crown[.]5 [W]anted two like Bolingbroke6 [ — ] got red haired hussey [ — ] went to Bob Derry’s[,]7 had brandy & water[.] She went for companion; found her not. Then once — Then home with her. Watchman lighted us & she paid penny. Horrid room; no fire no curtains — dirty sheets &c[.] [A]ll night[.] 3 here. 8 [J.] I set out in the Fly or rather Post-Coach all alone. I breakfasted at where to my astonishment, I heard that Wilkes had been elected for Middlesex.9 So fascinating is success, that I began to quit the determinations of my own reason, & to imagine him really a Patriot & like a Roman whom Mobilium turba quiritium

293

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 293

27/02/23 6:14 PM

29 march 1768 certat tergeminis tollere honoribus.10 But a little reflection soon cured me of this. After breakfast I was joined by a Jolly London Justice, who had lands in the neighbourhood;11 He and I were very hearty. At Henley we came out & went & looked at the machine with which they are levelling a very steep hill on the London side, by digging it down & throwing the earth into the hollow at the bottom.12 This is done without horses, by two carts which are contrived to work as buckets in a well. There is a road cut down the hill, they having begun at the foot of it, & cut upwards as they removed the earth. A number of men dig the earth, & throw it into the cart to which a strong rope is fixed, which is wound upon a horrizontal wheel above the face of the hill yet intire. The moment the cart is full, a bell is rung to warn the man at the bottom of the hill, who then lets go the cart which he has emptied into the hollow. Then two men go one on each side of the loaded cart (or but one for each cart, I forget which. I now recollect the two men on each side of the loaded cart only set it a-going) for a little way & push it along, then one returns to his companions, & one goes along with the cart, guiding it till he gets to the brink of the deep bottom, then he has a long piece of wood fixed to the cart, but so as to be twisted about. This he twists till he fixes the end of it between two spokes of the left wheel, & so stops the cart. In the meantime the weight of the loaded cart going down the hill, pulls up the empty cart, which is filled, & then pulls up the other. The wheel to which the rope is fixed is so made as not to13 turn too quickly; so it lets down the cart at a moderate pace. At three or four different places, there are accross the road double horrizontal trees or long pieces of wood, which are fixed by swinging ligatures or insertions in noches, to a post. Upon these trees the rope is put to preserve it from trailing, & being rubbed on the hill. The man who guides each cart runs now & then a little before it. He who goes down, runs to draw out the tree on one side to receive the rope. He who goes up, runs to draw out the tree to receive the rope on the other side, & as the one side is drawn out, the other falls in & it is so contrived that by these means, the ropes are allways kept at a proper elevation. This method was invented lately by a dissenting Clergyman at Henley.14 It is exceedingly useful, by making that be done by two men, which would require a great number of horses and oxen. When I came to Sandhill,15 I quitted the coach, & took a post chaise, & drove to Eton. I went into the college,16 & walked about very agreably repeating Mr. Gray’s verses, & as I looked at the Statue of King Henry17 I thought of ––– grateful science still adores Her Henry’s holy shade. I then returned to my chaise and drove to Windsor.18 It was truly elevating to ascend that noble heigth.19 When I enjoyed the prospect, I repeated Gray’s lines And ye who from the lofty brow Of Windsor’s heigths th’ expanse below &c.20 I surveyed the rooms with solid ancient taste. When I was shewn the armour of David King of Scotland21 my [. . .]22 294

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 294

27/02/23 6:14 PM

29 march 1768 1. For Brentford, see p. 282 n. 24. 2. Kitty Brookes. 3. Mathew was presumably a servant. He has not been identified. 4. ‘Robert Dun (d. 1768), tailor, who had had dealings with the Boswell family earlier in Edinburgh, and was now in Lancaster Court, the Strand’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 352 n. 2). 5. A five-shilling piece. 6. That is, JB wanted two whores. It is not clear whether JB refers to the 1st or the 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke. For Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, see p. 53 n. 25 and p. 276 nn. 22–23. ‘The aspect of his character that attracted most contemporary comment in his early years was his flagrant debauchery. He took a positive delight in proving that he could live as a libertine, while also excelling in public affairs’ (Oxford DNB). The 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke was Frederick St. John (1734–87) (Comp. Peer. ii. 207–08), who was also notoriously dissolute. 7. Bob Derry’s Cider Cellar, ‘a stinking sore of a public house’ in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. ‘Bob Derry’s was open all night and accepted into its fold the dregs of an evening out: those already too intoxicated to walk or talk straight. There, under Derry’s blind eye, pickpockets and diseaseridden streetwalkers did a roaring trade’ (Rubenhold, pp. 25–26). 8. MS. Blank space after ‘breakfasted at’. Probably Bensington (a village in south Oxfordshire), which was the first staging post after Oxford (). 9. See pp. 108–10 n. 6. 10. ‘“The crowd of fickle voters strives to exalt with the highest honours” (Horace, Odes, I. i. 7–8)’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 167 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 157 n. 8). 11. Unidentified. 12. White Hill, to the east of Henley. Because of the steep slope, many carriages and wagons coming from Maidenhead and

London avoided this hazard by taking a longer, but less steep, route. The method adopted for ‘the massive task of reducing the slope’ entailed ‘removing earth from the top of the hill to form a ramp at the bottom’ and using ‘a system of ropes and pulleys so that empty carts could be pulled up the slope using the weight of loaded carts going down’ (Kendal, p. 7). 13. MS. ‘to too’. 14. Humphrey Gainsborough (c. 1718– 76), appointed minister of the Independent Chapel at Newport Pagnell in 1743, and appointed minister of the Independent Chapel at Rotherfield Greys in or about 1748. He was an elder brother of Thomas Gainsborough, the celebrated artist (Kendal, pp. 1–2). ‘His last 28 years were spent at Henley-on-Thames where, in addition to his role as dissenting minister at the Independent Chapel, he developed the full range of his genius as an engineer and inventor. The culmination of his work was the invention of a condensing steam engine [much more powerful than the Newcomen steam engine]. This modest, unassuming and gifted man has never received due recognition for all the brilliant engineering skills and inventions that he displayed during his Henley years’ (Tyler, p. 51). 15. JB probably meant Salthill (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 169 n. 2, McGrawHill p. 158 n. 1), a village about 1 mile to the west of Slough. 16. Eton College, near Windsor, was founded by Henry VI in 1440. It was a relatively small college in the eighteenth century, and at the time of JB’s visit there were only about 300 boys and ten masters (Lyte, p. 327; Buckinghamshire, pp. 296, 298). Many of the pupils went on to lead very distinguished careers in later life. The headmaster was John Foster (c. 1731–74), D.D. (conferred by royal mandate in 1766), who was a ‘poor disciplinarian and resorted to violent measures to maintain order’, with the consequence that in 1768 there was ‘a serious rebellion, in which the whole of Sixth and Fifth Forms marched off to

295

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 295

27/02/23 6:14 PM

29 march 1768 Maidenhead’ (Hill, p. 30). When he was appointed headmaster in 1765 there were over 500 boys at the school, but at the time of his resignation in 1773 there were only 230 (ibid.; Oxford DNB. See also Cust, pp. 104, 119–20). The conditions in the college were ‘abominable’. ‘No one can have said with conviction that Long Chamber, the dormitory above Lower School, was a suitable home during the major part of the year for fifty-two boys’ (Buckinghamshire, p. 301). JB would send his eldest son, Alexander, to Eton in 1789 (Great Biographer, p. 13). 17. The bronze statue of Henry VI, in the middle of School Yard, by the sculptor Francis Bird (1667–1731), completed in about 1719 (Buckinghamshire, p. 308). Between 1710–20, Bird was ‘the most prestigious figurative sculptor working in London’, and, among many other works, produced a series of monuments in Westminster Abbey (Oxford DNB). 18. Windsor Castle. Founded by William the Conqueror, the castle ‘ranks first equal with the Tower of London as the premier castle of England. It is England’s largest castle, covering around 13 acres, and represents nine hundred years of architectural development.’ Within its grounds is St. George’s Chapel (founded by Edward III in 1348), ‘one of the masterpieces of

late medieval architecture in England’. George I and George II visited the castle only occasionally, and George III did not go there until 1776. At the time of JB’s visit, the castle had sunk ‘into picturesque torpor’ (Berkshire, pp. 616–17, 622–23). 19. At the time of JB’s visit, the Round Tower was less than half the height of the tower as it now stands (having been raised by 33 ft in 1828–31) and was ‘much less commanding in effect’ (Berkshire, p. 627). 20. ‘These, and the lines above, are slightly misquoted from Gray’s “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” II. 3–6’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 169 n. 4, McGraw-Hill p. 158 n. 2). 21. King David I, who visited the castle at Christmas 1126–27 as a guest of King Henry I (A History of the County of Berkshire, Vol. 3, ed. P. H. Ditchfield and William Page, Victoria County History, 1923, BHO, ). Payne, writing in 1819, stated: ‘Two suits of armour, one said to have been worn . . . by David King of Scotland, are still preserved in the guardchamber in the round tower of Windsor Castle, in which place they had both been confined’ (Payne, i. 55). 22. At this point six pages have been removed from the journal.

Wednesday 30 March [Notes] Dind Great Piazza[.]1 Sent Mathew for Black. Down to West[minste]r. [T]wo naked[.] [A]h tis the Barber hes a clever one[.]2 [J.] About six in the morning I decamped. I was despicable in my own opinion for having been in the very sink of vice.3 I walked about a while, & looked at the windows which had been broken by the mob.4 I then came home, washed[,] shifted, & had my hair combed. Then called on Sir John Dick a moment. Then went to Giardini’s in Queen Ann street Cavendish Square5 & called for Signor Baretti. On my road to him I was a little faint, so I stept into a Chairmans Publick house & drank a glass of Usquebaugh.6 Baretti was abed & bid the Boy tell me he was not well. I made him be roused, & when I had asked him all how he did, I found why he had been so restif. It seems one Mr. Bousfield lived in the same street with me.7 Baretti had called at his door, & met with a 296

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 296

27/02/23 6:14 PM

30 march 1768 very rude reception, & all the time he supposed this Bousfield to be me; and so he had gone & abused me to all our common acquaintance. What confirmed him in this idea was that Davies8 had told him that I was angry at a passage in his Account of Italy where he abuses the Writers in the English newspapers in favour of Corsica.9 However I soon undeceived him, & then he gave me my breakfast in good-humour. I found his manners exceedingly rough which had not disgusted me when I saw him at Venice, because I was so happy to find there a great admirer of Mr. Samuel Johnson. He & I walked over the way to Mr. Wilton’s10 & saw the noble monument11 [. . .]12 1. The arcades at Covent Garden. 2. On one occasion in 1763, when picking up a prostitute while dressed up as and acting the part of a ‘Blackguard’ who went ‘roaring along’ in celebration of the King’s Birth-night, JB had called himself a barber, and on another such occasion later the same night he had called himself a highwayman. ‘My Vanity’, he wrote in his journal entry for that day, ‘was somewhat gratify’d tonight, that notwithstanding of my dress, I was allways taken for a Gentleman in disguise’ (Journ. 4 June 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 237). The phrase ‘the barber’, or ‘that’s the barber’, was ‘a ridiculous and unmeaning phrase, in the mouths of the common people about the year 1760, signifying their approbation of any action, measure, or thing’ (CDVT). The use of the phrase is illustrated by the refrain in a broadside ballad, very popular in London in 1763, called The Barber, a copy of which JB sent to JJ (To JJ, 9 July 1763, Corr. 1, p. 86 and n. 2). ‘The ballad, apart from the refrain, appears merely to combine conventional popular anti-Bute sentiment with equally conventional praise of Pitt and Wilkes . . . JB was so captivated by the piece that he soon afterwards composed a stanza on young Robert Temple [1747–83, WJT’s brother (LJ 1762–63, p. 461 n. 3)] in imitation of it [To WJT, 23 July 1763, Corr. 6, p. 48]’ (Corr. 1, p. 86 n. 2). 3. MS. ‘I was despicable . . . vice’ scored off with a modern pen. 4. After Wilkes had been elected at Brentford on 28 Mar., his ‘elated supporters rioted through London on their return,

compelling illuminations on pain of broken windows, chalking “No. 45” on coaches and doors, assaulting those who would not join in the cry of “Wilkes and Liberty!” An attempt was made to storm the Mansion House, where Lord Mayor Harley had proved a vocal opponent of Wilkes, and Lord Bute’s windows in Berkeley Square lost every pane’ (White, p. 524). 5. Felice Giardini (1716–96), violinist and composer, born in Turin, Italy. He came to England in or about 1750 and pursued a successful career as a violin soloist and as leader of orchestras, also teaching violin, singing and harpsichord. The oratorio Ruth, composed by Giardini and Charles Avison (c. 1710–70), would be regularly performed from 1768 to 1780 in a version scored by Giardini alone. His last performance in London was in Ruth in 1792, some time after which he travelled to Moscow, where he died in poverty. ‘Giardini was a colourful and often controversial character. He combined charm, wit, and generosity with occasional arrogance, ill temper, and even dishonesty.’ The many chamber works composed by him ‘display a particular gift for melody’, and his tune ‘Trinity’ (now ‘Moscow’) ‘can still be found in English hymnals’ (Oxford DNB; see also Mortimer, p. 33). 6. Whisky. ‘Spirits in general have been known in several parts of Europe as “the water of life”: in Latin, “aqua vitae”; in French, “eau-de-vie”; in Scottish and Irish Gaelic, “uisque beatha” or “usquebaugh”, among other spellings. These Gaelic names, sounding to the English-speaker

297

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 297

27/02/23 6:14 PM

30 march 1768 like “uishgi”, were corrupted to “whisky”’ (Jackson, p. 7). 7. Unidentified. 8. Thomas Davies (c. 1712–85). ‘After a long career on the stage, Davies . . . became a bookseller in London in 1762. It was in the back room of Davies’s shop in Russell Street, Covent Garden, that JB met SJ for the first time on 16 May 1763 [Journ., LJ 1762–63, pp. 220 and 223]’ (Corr. 5, p. 53). 9. Baretti had written to JB on 4 Mar. wishing him joy for his ‘delightful book’, but adding: ‘However I wish you had not asserted, that the assassins make no inconsiderable part of the Genoese nation [Corsica, p. 109; Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 78] . . . The Genoese are as noble a nation as any . . . I have been amongst them several times, and lately full five months; and they have given me reason to be displeased when I see them libelled, especially in favour of the Corsicans, who upon the very face of your book do not appear to be any thing better than bloody-minded savages’ (From Baretti, 4 Mar. 1768, Corr. 7, p. 34). On 6 Apr., according to reports in Lond. Chron., 5–7 Apr. 1768, xxiii. 334, and The Westminster Journal and London Political Miscellany, 9 Apr., Issue 1216, JB would preside at ‘a celebration honouring Paoli’s birthday, which was so successful that “animated with universal ideas of liberty” and an extraordinary number of toasts the group formed itself into a Corsican Club to meet annually on that day’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 171, McGraw-Hill p. 160). The meeting was at the Queen’s Arms, St.

Paul’s Churchyard. There does not appear to be a record of any subsequent meetings of the club. JB was not in London in Apr. 1769. 10. Joseph Wilton (1722–1803), sculptor. After studying in France and working in Italy, he returned to England in 1755. ‘As the first academically trained English sculptor, Wilton went on to become the most distinguished sculptor of his generation. In 1761 he was appointed sculptor in ordinary to George III and was, in effect, sculptor to the empire, designing major works for various colonial administrations.’ From about 1761, he had an extensive workshop in Queen Anne Street East. He was ‘an early proponent of the neo-classical’ and it is considered that his most successful works were his ‘antique-style portrait busts’, which were ‘highly naturalistic and intimate’. Robert Chambers would marry Wilton’s daughter, Frances (1759–1839), on 8 Mar. 1774 (Oxford DNB, s.v. Joseph Wilton and s.v. Sir Robert Chambers). 11. Probably the monument to Maj.Gen. James Wolfe, on which Wilton worked for many years. The monument would not be unveiled until 1773, when it was installed in Westminster Abbey. Wilton’s winning of the competition for the monument ‘secured his reputation’, but the monument is considered to be ‘a confused concoction of contemporary narrative and classical allegory although this may have been exacerbated by the competition brief’ (Oxford DNB). 12. At this point twelve pages have been removed from journal.

[undated] [. . .] He came to me this morning, & a terrible operation he had of it; & after all was obliged to leave so much of the nail in, till he should get the proud flesh brought down.1 He was an old formal lean man pretty tall in a brown coat & red waistcoat & long light coloured Bob-wig. He actually told me that he had allways a turn for this profession, & when a Boy used to get apples from the maids for cutting their nails. He was a methodist, & whined grievously, giving one no comfort, but making the pain seem worse than it really was, though I do 298

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 298

27/02/23 6:14 PM

31 march–20 april 1768 not think he had any thing of a quack. But I shall know that when paying time comes. I called this morning on Mrs. Macaulay.2 She was denied; but her servant came running after me, ‘Sir my mistress is at home to Mr. Boswell.’3 I was shewn into her study where she was sitting in a kind of Spanish dress. Two Gentlemen were with her, who went away. She was very complimentative to me; but formal & affected; & she whined about liberty as an old Puritan would whine about Grace. In short I was rather disgusted with her. I then drove in a hackney coach to Dilly[’]s where I was to dine. He had a company for me. He introduced me to Mr. Burgh[,] a Scotsman[,] Master of an Academy at Newington Green[,]4 who had written a very warm commendation of my Account of Corsica in a letter to The London Chronicle signed Philopaolus.5 Mr. Burgh is the Authour of the Dignity of Human Nature, Crito &c.6 He is a stiff positive man[,] knowing however, & shrewd. The next man I was introduced to was Mr. Ryland[,] Master of an Academy at Northampton, & a dissenting Clergyman, a bold Briton with a very strong voice & much zeal.7 He has published a little Book on Mechanicks, & is publishing Packs of Cards on all the sciences.8 The next was the Reverend Dr. Robertson[,] Authour of an Attempt to explain the words Reason, Person &c, who honestly resigned his living because he became convinced that several of the Articles to which he had subscribed were not true.9 Mr. Cumming the Quaker was there too,10 and the Reverend Mr. Mayo, who I found was the Person who had taken upon him to make some alterations in11 my language12 in the Account of Corsica; but which a violent letter from me to Dilly had prevented, all but one or two; & lucky was it; for, sad alterations they were.13 After we were set down to dinner, Dr. Weyman[,] a Physician in the City[,] also came.14 It was a most curious company. The most direct compliments were paid to me, without the least delicacy. ‘Dr. Weyman this is Mr. Boswell Authour of the Account of Corsica.’ Wey[man]. ‘Mr. Boswell is a very respectable character.’ Such broad hints as these were thrown about. Dr. Robertson was also praised for his conduct. We had a good substantial dinner, after [. . .]15 1. For JB’s trouble with ingrown toenails since his trip to Corsica, see p. 154 n. 1. 2. Catharine Macaulay (née Sawbridge) (1731–91), historian and political writer with republican sympathies, author of the eight-volume The History of England from the Accession of James I. to that of the Brunswick Line, the first four volumes of which were published between 1763 and 1768. The remaining four volumes would be published between 1771 and 1783. Although initially considered to be a Whig historian, providing an alternative interpretation to David Hume’s Tory account, it became increasingly apparent that she held

strong republican views, hailing the Commonwealth of 1649–60 as ‘the brightest age that ever adorned the page of history’ (Vol. 5, p. 382) and expressing support for the American colonists (Oxford DNB). She, and other radicals, wanted to move ‘towards meeting the specific demands of the Wilkites, which meant adopting not only such “Country” politics as more frequent parliaments and a place and pensions bill . . . but also a wholly new system of political representation. The voting class, they argued, needed to be expanded in ways undreamt of by the Country party of the past’ (Harris, p. 429). In 1763, SJ told JB that ‘there is one Mrs. Mcaulay in

299

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 299

27/02/23 6:14 PM

31 march–20 april 1768 this town, a great Republican. I came to her one day and said I was quite a convert to her republican System, and thought mankind all upon a footing; and I begged that her footman might be allowed to dine with us. She has never liked me since’ (Journ. 22 July 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 288). Later, when the first volume of her History of England had appeared, JB satirized her in his Ten-Lines-a-Day verses (30 Nov. 1763): Like a Dutch vrouw all shapeless, pale, and fat, That hugs and slabbers her ungainly brat, Our Cath’rine sits sublime o’er steaming tea, And takes her dear Republic on her knee; Sings it all songs that ever yet were sung, And licks it fondly with her length of tongue. (Holland, Heinemann p. 77, McGrawHill p. 79)

‘This remained pretty much his private opinion of the lady, but he was now placed under the restraint of politeness, first by the fact that Dilly was their common publisher [Edward and Charles Dilly would publish an edition of the first five volumes of the History of England in 1769], and secondly by Mrs. Macaulay’s having volunteered a constitution for Corsica, in the form of an open letter to Paoli’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 171 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 160 n. 9). 3. In a letter of 1 Feb., JB had opened a correspondence with Macaulay about Corsica and Paoli. In the preceding year she had published, anonymously, Loose Remarks on . . . Mr. Hobbes’s Philosophical Rudiments . . . With a Short Sketch of a Democratical Form of Government, in a Letter to Signor Paoli, in which she ‘offered Paoli her suggestions for constructing a “democratic republic” in Corsica. The [pamphlet] was one of the works [Thomas] Davies sent to Paoli at JB’s request’ (Corr. 5, p. 231 n. 6, pp. 238 and 239 n. 16). In

his letter of 1 Feb., JB informed Macaulay that he had sent the pamphlet to Paoli, and passed on ‘Paoli’s high opinion of the work for its constitutional insights and as a corrective to the current fashion for monarchy’. JB continued: ‘Paoli was not informed to whom He was obliged for so elegant & spirited an Address. I have now however told him, and I have ventured to assure him that the Lady will continue her correspondence. Such publick addresses from Great Britain do honour both to this country and to Corsica; and were it not that we are in general dead to nobleness of sentiment, there would be many more zealous friends of the brave Islanders. Permit me Madam to join my thanks to those of Paoli’ (MS. privately owned; sold at auction on 31 Jan. 2018; quoted from website of Dominic Winter Auctioneers, ). Macaulay had replied to JB on 17 Feb., thanking him ‘for three considerable favors which you have done me the honor to confer on me. The first is the valuable present of the judicious history of Corsica a well timed spirited and elegant work.’ This copy will have been provided to her, probably at JB’s request, by Dilly in London (ahead of the stated publication date of 18 Feb.). The other two ‘favors’ for which Macaulay thanked JB were ‘the notice you were pleesd to take of a small work of mine entitled loose remarks etc. and the . . . transmitting to me the agreable intelligence that that publication has met with the aprobation of the Corsican Chief Paoli as I had no imagination that the pamphlet would ever come to the hands of that illustrious modern Worthy’. The letter ended with her wish to meet JB, ‘of whom I have heard much and with whom I wish to be acquainted’ (Corr. 7, pp. 22–23). 4. James Burgh (1714–75), author and educationist, who moved to London in or about the early 1740s and, after

300

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 300

27/02/23 6:14 PM

31 march–20 april 1768 working as an assistant in two schools, opened his own academy at Stoke Newington in 1747. The school was so successful that in 1750 he moved to more extensive premises at Newington Green, ‘an enclave of dissenters’. ‘Rejecting corporal discipline and endorsing a practical curriculum, Burgh epitomized the progressive pedagogy characteristic of dissenting academicians’ (Oxford DNB). 5. The letter, which appeared in Lond. Chron., 12–15 Mar. 1768, xxiii. 244, stated: ‘I do not know of any publication better calculated to rouze in the breasts of degenerate E–– men, the expiring flame of Patriotism, than Mr. Boswell’s Account of Corsica. I do not know the author; but I venerate, and I love the man, who shews such love and such veneration for the illustrious Paoli; and I would with pleasure travel an hundred miles to thank Mr. Boswell in person for his worthy labour, which I would wish to be very attentively perused by every man in Britain.’ 6. The Dignity of Human Nature, published in 1754, was ‘a celebrated manual of “maxims and homilies”’. Crito, published in 1766–67, was ‘a caustic critique of public apathy in the wake of [Burgh’s] failure in 1766 to organize an association to undercut the monopolists who had inflated meat prices in the metropolis’. Burgh would become ‘an important penman and propagandist for a radical network that . . . included Catharine Macaulay’ (Oxford DNB). 7. John Collett Ryland (1723–92), schoolmaster and Baptist minister, ordained pastor of the Baptist church in Warwick 1750, moved to Northampton as schoolmaster and minister in 1759, M.A. 1769 (Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island). In 1786, Ryland would move his school to Enfield, where it prospered and expanded (Oxford DNB). 8. Ryland’s publications were numerous and covered a wide range of subjects, including theological matters. In 1768, Edward and Charles Dilly would publish his An Easy Introduction to Mechanics, Geom-

etry, Plane Trigonometry, Measuring Heights and Distances, Optics, Astronomy. The Dillys would publish a second edition of that work in 1772 entitled An Easy and Pleasant Introduction to Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophy: Containing the First Principles of Mechanics, Trigonometry, Optics, and Astronomy (with an Appendix by the Scottish astronomer James Ferguson (1710–76)). Ryland explains the use of cards as a method of teaching sciences on pp. ix–xxii of that edition. 9. William Robertson (1705–83), schoolmaster and theological writer, M.A. (Glasgow, 1724), appointed curate of Tullow (County Carlow, Ireland) 1728, ordained priest and appointed rector of Rathvilly (County Carlow) and Kilranelagh (County Wicklow) 1729, curate at St. Luke’s, Dublin, 1743–48, returned to Rathvilly in 1748 for health reasons. ‘In 1760 he had the offer of a better living . . . [D]espite straitened circumstances Robertson felt bound in conscience to refuse it, having developed doubts about the liturgy . . . He began to omit the Athanasian creed, and when this gave offence he resigned his living in 1764’ (Oxford DNB). In 1766, he published his An Attempt to Explain the Words Reason, Substance, Person, Creeds, Orthodoxy, Catholic-church, Subscription, and Index Expurgatorius. In this work, he ‘defended reason in the face of authority, and renounced sectarian subscription and the enforcement of creeds that were a legacy of obsolete metaphysics and an inducement to hypocricy’ (ibid.). As a result of this work, Glasgow University conferred the degree of D.D. on him in Jan. 1768. In Dec. 1768, he would be appointed master of Wolverhampton Grammar School, a position he held until his death (ibid.). 10. Thomas Cumming (d. 1774), merchant in London trading in Africa, nicknamed ‘the Fighting Quaker’ (Oxford DNB). In 1757, he ‘persuaded the Government to allow him to lead an armed expedition into Senegal, which drove out the French and established British trading supremacy there’

301

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 301

27/02/23 6:14 PM

31 march–20 april 1768 (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 172 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 161 n. 1). 11. MS. It seems that JB perhaps originally wrote ‘On’ but changed it to ‘in’. 12. MS. ‘languge’. 13. Henry Mayo. The letter from JB to Edward Dilly has not been reported.

14. Luke Wayman, M.D. (Marischal College, Aberdeen, 1760), member of the Royal College of Physicians of London (admitted 1765) (Munk, ii. 268). He was a regular subscriber to publications. 15. At this point fourteen pages have been removed from the journal.

[undated] Another morning Willison the Painter1 called upon me.2 Mr. Ryland of Northampton happened then to be with me. He and Willison began to dispute. Ryland was all enthusiasm, all in generals. Willison was slow, & wanted to bring him to particulars. Ryland boasted of his son Jack[,] his proficiency in learning, his excellent principles both in Politicks and Morals.3 Well but said Willison what do you intend to make of him. Make of him cried Ryland, I will make nothing of him. Would you have me cramp his inclinations, fetter the free-born mind? No Sir. But said Willison do you intend him for the Church or —. Church roared Ryland. No Sir — to cringe to a despicable Lord or Duke, who has only the accidents of birth & fortune to recommend him, to be an utter Sycophant, a fellow destitute of every noble sentiment. But Sir said Willison what profession[,] I say, what profession do you intend him for. Profession cried Ryland. Why Sir, a Citizen of the world, a lover of his Country, a friend of Mankind. One who knows the dignity of human nature. Such a mind Sir such a soul is beyond all that a Painter can shew. I all the while fanned the fire, sometimes joining Willison sometimes Ryland, being like to burst out with a peal of laughter. Willison with the Scotch sneer snuffed at Ryland as at a great english fool, & Ryland strutted with the step of Costar Pearmain in the Recruiting officer4 despising Willison as a poor spiritless Artist who knew nothing of sublime Philosophy. Another morning, I met Lord Mountstuart at Sir John Dick’s [. . .]5 1. MS. ‘the Painter’ interlined. 2. George Willison (1741–97), Scottish portrait painter, studied at the Edinburgh Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Sciences, and later in Italy from 1760 to 1767. He painted JB’s portrait at Rome in 1765 (see pp. 254–55 n. 7). From 1767 to 1772 he worked at Greek Street, Soho, London, and from 1774 to 1780 he would work in India, where he produced the many portraits for which he is best known (Oxford DNB). He was GD’s cousin (Earlier Years, p. 221). 3. John Ryland (1753–1825), theologian and Baptist minister. ‘Young Ryland, who was educated at his father’s school, was

a precocious child. He could read Psalm 23 in Hebrew when only five years old and by the time he was nine had read through the Greek testament. As a teenager it was clear that his ability was matched by a spiritual understanding and maturity rare in someone so young . . . Before he was fifteen he began to assist his father in his school at Northampton, where he became pastor in 1759.’ He would later become principal of the Bristol Baptist College, becoming president in 1793. In 1792, he would be awarded the degree of D.D. by Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and in 1793 would become minister of Broadmead Chapel, Bristol (Oxford DNB).

302

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 302

27/02/23 6:14 PM

31 march–20 april 1768 4. First performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, in 1706, The Recruiting Officer is a Restoration comedy by the Irish playwright George Farquhar (1676/7–1707). The comedy ‘became one of the most popular plays on stage, running 512 times in London during the century’ (Oxford DNB). The character Costar Pearmain is a recruited soldier. 5. At this point the manuscript breaks off completely, four pages having been removed; but Pottle reported that, from

the ‘offset’ of the ink on the blank page following, it had been possible ‘with considerable certainty’ to recover the missing last page (BP, vii. 185). The last page as set out by Pottle (ibid., pp. 185–86) is as follows (but, in accordance with the editorial conventions applicable to the present volume, where a word is uncertain but it is possible to speculate as to its terms the word is shown here within angular brackets, and where a word is indecipherable this is stated in italics within such brackets).

[undated] I was really put in a passion, and told them I was resolved to punish them, and would go immediatly to Justice Fielding’s.1 I accordingly placed a as Sentry upon the house, and then actually went to the blind Justice’s. A very decent civil Man came out to me; I suppose he was one of the Clerks. I told him the trick that had been put upon me. He said I could have no immediate redress, for, as I had given her the money out of my own hand, it was no theft. I had therefore no other method but to prosecute her for a debt in a court of law, ‘which,’ said he ‘I suppose you would not chuse.’ I asked him what I him for his good advice. ‘Nothing at all, Sir,’ said he. This office of Fielding’s is really an admirable institution.2 I home, and thought no more of it. 1. Sir John Fielding (1721–80), halfbrother to the celebrated novelist Henry Fielding (1707–54). ‘Little is known of his upbringing, but as a youngster he developed eye trouble and when he was nineteen botched operations left him entirely blind. “The Blind Beak”, the magistrate sitting with a black bandage over his eyes and sifting truth from lies solely through aural finesse, has endowed John Fielding with much heroic glamour, and understandably so’ (White, p. 430). He was appointed a Westminster magistrate in Aug. 1751 and a Middlesex magistrate in Jan. 1754, at which time he also took over Henry’s role as ‘court justice’ (‘responsible for advising and assisting the judicial interests of government, and principal magistrate for the metropolis, excluding the City [of London]’: ibid., p. 428), and took occupancy of Henry’s justice house at 4 Bow

Street, where he would live for the rest of his life (ibid., pp. 430–31). Fielding, who was knighted in 1761, carried on Henry’s practice of using professional ‘thief-takers’ to search for and apprehend offenders. ‘It is this that justifies the claim that the Fieldings were the founders of professional policing in London’ (ibid., p. 431). 2. JB had had previous experience of Fielding’s court in 1763 when, having resolved to vacate his lodgings after an altercation with his landlord, he went there to ascertain how much he was obliged to pay by way of rent. ‘A more curious Scene I never beheld: it brought fresh into my mind the ideas of London Roguery & Wickedness which I conceived in my younger days, by reading The lives of the Convicts, and other such Books. There were Whores and Chairmen and greasy Blackguards of all Denominations assembled together. The

303

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 303

27/02/23 6:14 PM

31 march–20 april 1768 blind Justice had his court in a back Hall. His Clerk [William Marsden (d. 1769), principal clerk (LJ 1762–63, p. 501 n. 5)] who officiates as a sort of Chamber Council, hears all the causes, and gives his Opinion. As I had no formal Complaint to make, he

did not carry me into the Justice, but told me that as my Landlord had used me rudely, altho’ I had taken my lodgings by the year, I was only obliged to pay him for the time that I had lived in his house’ (Journ. 6 July 1763, LJ 1762–63, p. 259).

Thursday 21 April1 Lord Lyttelton2 sat an hour. Talked much of Corsica3 [ — ] Lord Hardwicke4 to propose it in house of Lords — But this dangerous — a cabinet council affair.5 If twas Lord Egremont6 [ — ] a difficulty with me — strew flowers o[’]er his grave7 — I told him his history old mutton rich gravy8 — He said Genoa port good — Italian Merchants remonstrated to board of trade. Bid me be well informed — So I shew best my friendship.9 Fine interview [ — ] In great pain afternoon. 1. Here JB starts the notes he kept for his journal in London from 21 April to 16 May 1768. These notes, designated ‘J 15’ in the Yale editors’ cataloguing system, occupy ‘7 unpaged octavo leaves, 14 sides written on, loose’ (Catalogue, i. 9). The notes, ‘though scrappy and cryptic’, are ‘of the greatest interest and importance’, as they record a remarkable number of ‘meetings with famous men’. ‘The circumstances are somewhat ironic. [JB]’s “roaring” has had its usual unhappy consequence, and he is now confined to his room, as he writes to [WJT], “suffering severely for immorality” [To WJT 26 Apr. 1768, Corr. 6, p. 232]. The great men of the literary and political world come to pay their respects to the author of the book of the hour, An Account of Corsica’ (BP, vii. 186). 2. ‘George Lyttelton (1709–73), First Baron Lyttelton, had been elevated to the peerage in 1756 after more than twenty years in the Commons, in which he remained an active but “second rank politician” (Namier and Brooke iii. 75). His very diverse literary output included poetry, letters, political and religious tracts, and history’ (Corr. 7, p. 30 n. 1). At this time, he was working on the third edition of his History of the Life of King Henry the Second (1769–73), which was being corrected for the press by Robert Sanders (c. 1727–83)

(Oxford DNB). On 18 Feb., Sanders had written to JB acknowledging a presentation copy of An Account of Corsica that had been forwarded to Lyttelton by Edward and Charles Dilly. Sanders wrote that ‘The Right Honourable the Lord Lyttelton has desired me to Return you his hearty thanks for the Valuable present of your fine History of Corsica . . . [H]is Lordship desired me to let you know that as soon as he has Read the work he will Write to you his Opinion of it, and at all Times be Extremly glad of your Corespondance’ (Corr. 7, pp. 23 and 24 n. 1). Lyttelton himself had written on 21 Feb., noting that JB’s book ‘has given me the pleasure of being more perfectly acquainted with the greatest character of this age’, and that JB’s ‘heart is inflamed with the same generous passion which glows so brightly in his’ (Corr. 7, p. 29). JB would print this letter in his third edition. 3. ‘The cause of Corsican independence was in great danger at this time, London being filled with rumours, and true ones, that France was about to take over Genoa’s claims to the Island and to subdue it. [JB] exerted himself on behalf of the Corsicans through his usual medium of newspaper “inventions”, and also started to make a collection of essays by various hands, which was finally published in December 1768 as British Essays in Favour of the Brave

304

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 304

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 april 1768 Corsicans’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann pp. 174–75, McGraw-Hill p. 163). 4. ‘Philip Yorke (1720–90), second Earl of Hardwicke, served as M.P. for Reigate (1741–47) and Cambridgeshire (1747–64) before replacing his more celebrated father in the House of Lords in 1764. His chief vocation was collecting and editing historical materials. Yorke kept an exact journal (still considered definitive) of debates in the House of Commons from Dec. 1743 to Apr. 1745, and published in 1757 the first of his scholarly editions, Letters from and to Sir Dudley Carleton . . . from January 1615/ 16, to December 1620. Although Horace Walpole ridiculed him as “a bookish man, conversant only with parsons” (Memoirs of George III, quoted in Namier and Brooke iii. 681), as late as July 1767 he was seen as a useful addition to a projected Rockingham administration because of his reputation as a politician untainted by factional infighting (Joyce Godber, The Marchioness Grey of Wrest Park, Publications of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, 1968, xlvii. 78)’ (Corr. 7, p. 55 n. 1). JB would write to him on 27 Apr. requesting a conference (Corr. 7, pp. 54–55). 5. That is, Lyttelton ‘suggested Lord Hardwicke might introduce some measure in the House of Lords to help Paoli, although it was more likely to be treated as “a cabinet council affair”’ (ibid., p. 30 n. 1). ‘However, the only motions or requests for papers presented in either House on the matter of Corsica up to the end of 1768 came from the Commons. There, Burke on 8 Nov. unsuccessfully tried to include a passage in the Address of Thanks to the King

condemning the French invasion. Furthermore, on 17 Nov. Seymour [Henry Seymour (1729–1807), M.P Totnes 1763–68, Huntingdon 1768–74, Evesham 1774–80 (Namier and Brooke, iii. 423)] moved that copies of all correspondence of Government officials relative to Corsica from the 1st of January 1767 should be laid before the House. The latter motion, although rejected by a vote of 230 to 84, succeeded in raising debate on the importance of Corsica to Britain ([JHC] xxxii. 38, 17 Nov. 1768; Parl. Hist. 1765–71, xvi. 472–75; Corres. HW xxiii. 69)’ (ibid., p. 55 n. 2). 6. Charles Wyndham (1710–63), 2nd Earl of Egremont, M.P. for Bridgewater 1735–41, Appleby 1742–47, Taunton 1747–50, Secretary of State for the Southern Department 1761–63 (Comp. Peer. v. 36). 7. BP, vii. 187, suggests the following interpretation of this passage (the supposed missing words being shown in italics): ‘“If ’twas Lord Egremont,” he said, “it might be managed, but this would be a difficulty with me.” I said that to bring about an alliance of which Lord Egremont would have approved would be to strew flowers o’er his grave.’ 8. That is, Lord Lyttelton’s history (for which, see n. 2 above). 9. BP, vii. 187, suggests the following interpretation of the passage from ‘He said Genoa port good’ (the supposed missing words being shown in italics): ‘He said that the Genoa port was good, and that the Italian Merchants had remonstrated to the board of trade against English influence in Corsica. He bid me be well informed; saying that so I would shew best my friendship.’

Friday 22 April Y E[,]1 M. Detouche[,]2 Bigge[,]3 Wyvil[,]4 Col Gould5 [ — ] fine — afternoon sad pain [ — ] Mckonochie.6 1. Unidentified. In Lond. Chron. for 9–12 Apr. 1768, xxiii. 347, there was an item by Y. E. expressing ‘many hearty

thanks for the very great pleasure’ he had received in reading An Account of Corsica ‘and for the spirit of liberty which breathes

305

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 305

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 april 1768 throughout that account’, but particularly for JB’s Memoirs of ‘that truly great man Paoli, whose character shines remarkable in matters that are otherwise of little import: for it is very true what Plutarch has long since observed, that the little actions of great men, when they are off their guard, shew best their disposition’. 2. ‘Probably — Destouches, son of Philippe Néricault Destouches, dramatist’ (BP, Index, p. 109). 3. Thomas Charles Bigge (c. 1739– 94), of Benton House, near Newcastle, matriculated Christ Church, Oxford, 1757, aged eighteen, Sheriff of Northumberland 1771 (BP, Index, p. 24; Alum. Oxon. i. 108). ‘[JB] had seen a good deal of [Bigge] when he and Bigge were together in Rome in April and May of 1765’ (Extremes, p. 108 n. 5). 4. Christopher Wyvill (1738–1822), ‘the future parliamentary reformer and advocate of universal toleration’. Wyvill ‘had Edinburgh connexions, for his father, Edward, was General Supervisor for Excise in the city and his mother, Christian Catherine, was the daughter of William Clifton “of Edinburgh”, though her family hailed originally from Blyth in Nottinghamshire (Burke’s Landed Gentry, [17th ed.], p. 467). Wyvill was at Queen’s, Cambridge, at the same time as WJT was at Trinity Hall. He was Rector of Black Notley in Essex 1763– 1806, administering the parish through a curate, and inherited a considerable estate in Yorkshire in 1774 (Alum. Cant. II). In 1779 he became Secretary, later Chairman, of the Yorkshire Association, whose main aim was the reform of parliamentary representation, but despite his attempt to co-ordinate the efforts of the English and Scottish reformers, the Scots seemed to prefer to follow their own path, rather than the lead of Yorkshire (N. T. Phillipson, “Scottish Public Opinion and the Union

in the Age of Association” in Scotland in the Age of Improvement, ed. N. T. Phillipson and Rosalind Mitchison, 1970, p. 124). He played some part in JB’s political life in the 1780s: see JB’s letter of 31 Mar. 1784 to the Edin. Even. Courant about a meeting of “the very respectable freeholders of the County of York” printed in Applause, pp. 197–99. Dr Phillipson speculates that JB saw himself as the Wyvill of Scotland in the way he organized opposition in Ayrshire to the 1785 Bill to diminish the Lords of Session [that is, to reduce the number of the judges from fifteen to ten] (op. cit. p. 137); indeed, he described his own county of Ayr as “the Yorkshire of Scotland” (Letter to the People of Scotland, 1785, p. 56). Soon after meeting JB in 1767 Wyvill, as well as WJT and Lord Hailes, was asked to read the proofs of Corsica: see To WJT, 2 Oct. [1767]’ (Corr. 6, p. 196 n. 4). WJT told JB that Wyvill was ‘a clergyman of a good living in Essex, a man of letters & merit, & more orthodox than your friend’ (From WJT, 27 June 1767, Corr. 6, p. 195). 5. Lt.-Col. Nathaniel Gould (c. 1730– 86), of the 3rd Regt. of Foot Guards (which regiment he joined as an Ensign on 7 Aug. 1749). He was appointed Lt.-Col. on 19 Feb. 1762 and presumably retired in 1766, when he last appeared in the Army List (1755, p. 32 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/2); 1766, p. 52 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/16)). Gould’s second wife, whom he married in 1759, was Elizabeth ‘Betty’ (Cochrane) Hamilton (c. 1735–99), who was a cousin of JB’s mother (LJ 1762– 63, p. 349 n. 2 and p. 353 n. 6). After meeting Gould for the first time, JB had referred to him as ‘a sensible genteel, obliging little man’ and remarked that he was ‘very kind to me’ and ‘I realy liked the man much’ (Journ. 3 Dec. 1762, LJ 1762–63, p. 26). 6. Alexander Maconochie.

Saturday 23 April Mr. Hood about New york ships1 [ — ] Dr. Wright2 — afternoon easier. 306

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 306

27/02/23 6:14 PM

26 april 1768 1. Possibly John Hood, listed in Mortimer, p. 15, under ‘Masters and Professors of Arts and Sciences’, as ‘Designer of Ships, &c. in Indian Ink’ at Limehouse. 2. Probably Richard Wright (c. 1739– 86), elected Fellow of the Royal Society 19 Mar. 1767 (List of Fellows of the Royal Society 1666–2007). He was educated at

Emmanuel College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. (1762), M.A. (1765) and later M.D. (1773), and would be admitted a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1775. Although not obtaining his M.D. until 1773, he would be appointed physician to St. George’s Hospital in 1769, which position he held until 1785 (Munk, ii. 302–03).

Sunday 24 April Mr. Small morning.1 Dr. Wright[.] Messieurs Dilly Evening & Mr. Wyvill. 1. John Small, macer of the Court of Session.

Monday 25 April Gen Oglethorpe.1 Mckon[ochie]. 1. James Edward Oglethorpe (1696– 1785), joined the 1st Regt. of Foot Guards in 1707, appointed Lt. in 1713, served in Prince Eugene’s imperial army 1716–18, M.P. Haslemere 1722–54, appointed (in 1729) chairman of a House of Commons committee to inquire into the state of English prisons (the reports of which resulted in the release of many debtors), founded the colony of Georgia in 1732, appointed Col. in 1737, defeated the Spanish at the battle of Bloody Marsh in 1742, appointed Brig.-Gen. in 1743. His military career came to an end in 1748 after he had been court-martialled, but acquitted, on an unsubstantiated charge that his alleged Jacobite sympathies had prevented him from zealously pursuing the retreating rebels after the Jacobite rising in 1745 (Oxford DNB; Sedgwick, ii. 305–06). ‘JB included the following account of General Oglethorpe . . . in a note to the Life: “Soon after the publication of my ‘Account of

Corsica,’ he did me the honour to call on me, and approaching me with a frank courteous air, said, ‘My name, Sir, is Oglethorpe, and I wish to be acquainted with you.’ I was not a little flattered to be thus addressed by an eminent man, of whom I had read in Pope, from my early years, ‘Or, driven by strong benevolence of soul, Will fly, like Oglethorpe, from pole to pole’”.

Oglethorpe in his turn was so impressed with JB that he issued a standing invitation for him to dine at his table. JB reported that “in his society I never failed to enjoy learned and animated conversation, seasoned with genuine sentiments of virtue and religion” (Life ii. 350, n. 2)’ (Corr. 7, p. 252 n. 1). The lines by Pope are from Imitations of Horace, Epistle ii. 2. 276–77 (for ‘Or’ read ‘One’; for ‘Will’ read ‘Shall’).

Tuesday 26 April Mr. Rose.1 307

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 307

27/02/23 6:14 PM

26 april 1768 1. Dr. William Rose (1719–86), schoolmaster, editor and translator, educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, headmaster of a prosperous boarding-school in Chiswick from 1758 (Oxford DNB, s.v. Samuel Rose). JB would refer to him as ‘a bold, honest fellow, and a man of coarse abilities’ and noted that he was ‘Matthew

Henderson’s old governor’ (Journ. 21 Sept. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 318, McGraw-Hill p. 299). Rose was in favour of treating children mildly and sparing the rod, which resulted in SJ’s remark that then ‘they get nothing else: and what they gain at one end, they lose at the other’ (Life i. 46 n. 1).

Wednesday 27 April Mr. Bigge[.]

Thursday 28 April Mr. Herries1 & Sir W. Forbes.2 Col Gould[.]3 Sir Jo. Dick4 [ — ] Afternoon old General — brought two admirable Essays.5 Wyvill came & sat till 12. 1. Robert Herries. 2. Sir William Forbes. 3. MS. ‘Col Gould’ interlined. 4. Sir John Dick. 5. General Oglethorpe contributed essays 2, 3 and 4 to JB’s collection of British Essays in Favour of the Brave Corsicans. That volume ‘consists of twenty anonymous essays, introduced by JB’s signed preface in which he notes that while he had written some of the essays himself, “the greatest part have been furnished by persons unknown to me” (British Essays, 1769,

p. ix; Lit. Car. pp. 76–84). [JB]’s own copy of the book, found after the publication of Lit. Car., offers a key to the authorship of many of the essays. JB himself wrote essays 1, 6, 12, 15, 17, 19, and 20 . . . Edward Dilly wrote essay 9. JB’s key attributes essay 18 to Sir John Dick, but Joseph Cawthorne claimed to have written it at Dick’s request (British Essays, 1769, copy owned by Samuel Johnson Birthplace, Lichfield; From Joseph Cawthorne, 22 Sept. 1769 [Corr. 7, pp. 237–38])’ (Corr. 7, p. 59 n. 6; see also Boswell’s Books, #398, p. 128).

Friday 29 April Mr. Cole1 [ — ] Sensible sound man. Bowle2 the Lawyer’s daughter a prostitute had learnt latin &c[.]3 Gentleman took cundum — She lying on floor [ — ] Nullum numen abest4 — Good facts from him — much better today — Sir Jo. Dick — Afternoon Hood. 1. Unidentified. 2. Unidentified. 3. MS. ‘had learnt latin &c’ interlined. 4. That is, she said ‘Nullum numen abest’, alluding to ‘Nullum numen abest si sit prudentia’ (Juvenal, Satires, IV. x. 365). This proverb can be translated as ‘where there is

prudence, no protecting deity is absent’. JB once heard SJ make the following remark: ‘Though the proverb “Nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia,” does not always prove true, we may be certain of the converse of it, Nullum numen adest, si sit imprudentia [where there is imprudence, no protecting deity is present]’ (Life iv. 180).

308

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 308

27/02/23 6:14 PM

1 may 1768

Saturday 30 April Sir Jo Pringle grave drollery [ — ] tell your mistress your faults[?] You may as well tell her youll sh-t beside her if you’re seis’d with a flux — ’tis not to be said to a mistress1 — O very well. Youve convinc’d me at once tho’ you coud not have2 done it by half an hour’s reasoning. Evening Sir Jo. Dick sat a while. I was now easier. 1. Words from ‘Sir Jo Pringle’ to ‘not to be said to a mistress’ scored off with a modern pen (but deleted words written in faint handwriting above).

2. MS. Word deleted after ‘not have’. Looks like ‘done’. Perhaps JB wrote it twice by mistake and deleted the first.

Sunday 1 May Much better. Had written to Paoli & pledged honour no more vice1 — yet the scent of eau sans pareille2 would revive elegant Lais.3 But I represt; I forfeit more healthy & worthy joys. I read Lord Lytt[elton]’s St. Paul4 & the Bible & was well. Guthrie[,]5 Hamilton6 & Mckon[ochie] dined. I was well. Guthrie said Gen Oglethorpes mind & also Lord Elibanks7 rich but like Upholsterer’s shop. Carpets high up [ — ] glasses below &c.8 I talked of not writing till the very day a paper was needed, because then said I one runs down hill [ — ] till then one is labouring up the hill. But one is at the top the moment the point of9 necessity is reached. To write before that is double fatigue; but I must do so for my10 Clients; lest running too quick down-hill, I miss something. Slowly going up I take all. We talked of Reg. Majes.11 Mr. Guthrie said the strong arg[ument] was that it was revisd in Parl[iament] of Ja 1 when many were alive of Dav 2s reign who never would have allowed it to be called of Dav. 1.12 English might borrow from Scotch as french Sal Law.13 Hamilton promis’d you should review Lords Speeches.14 He has Review [ — ] all auth[or]s mark’d.15 Twas excellent literary conversat[ion]. Evening Small called. 1. JB’s last known letter to Paoli was written on 26 Jan. but is not reported (see the entry for 26 Jan. and n. 1). 2. Eau sans pareil (water without compare). 3. For Lais, see p. 143 n. 1. 4. Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul: In a Letter to Gilbert West, Esq, first published in 1747. JB’s copy was the 1763 edition and is now held in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale. A pencil note by F. A. Pottle on the front pastedown states: ‘It was probably presented to [JB] by the author, who

came to visit him several times [in 1768] while he was confined to his rooms, “suffering severely from immorality”’ (Boswell’s Books, #2124, p. 268). 5. William Guthrie. 6. Archibald Hamilton (d. 1793), publisher, who founded Crit. Rev. in 1756 and remained its publisher until his death (Lit. Anec. iii. 398–400; Corr. 7, p. 16 n. 5). 7. Patrick Murray (1703–78), 5th Lord Elibank, advocate (admitted 22 June 1723 (Fac. Adv., p. 65)). ‘He joined the army as an Ensign in 1723, rising in 1749 to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel

309

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 309

27/02/23 6:14 PM

1 may 1768 in Wynard’s Marines; but left the army in 1742 after serving at the unsuccessful siege of Cartagena (in what is now Colombia) in 1741. After returning to Scotland, he became a major literary patron. “[T]hough too lazy to be an author, few men were better qualified to co-operate with [the Edinburgh literati] in their pursuits. His lordship had more learning than most men of quality, and an original way of thinking which scorned all control . . . For a number of years Lord Elibank, Lord Kames, and Mr David Hume were considered as a literary triumvirate, from whose judgment, in matters of taste and composition, there lay no appeal” (Ramsay, [i.] 318–19). [JB] referred to Elibank as “a man of great genius[,] great knowledge & much whim” ([LJ 1762–63], p. 12 (26 November 1762))’ (LPJB 2, p. 400 n. 62; see also Scots Peer. iii. 518–19). 8. ‘The simile may have been suggested by [JB]’s surroundings: his landlord [Mr. Russel] was an upholsterer’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 176 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 165 n. 1). See the entry for 22 Mar. 9. MS. ‘the point of’ interlined. 10. MS. ‘my’ interlined. 11. The Regiam Majestatem, according to modern opinion, is a treatise, probably compiled by ‘an unknown cleric in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century’, attempting to set out the law of Scotland as it then stood (Walker, SLS, p. 128). Around this work ‘there gathered a halo of professional respect that defied every assault of learned criticism’ and ‘from the 15th century onwards [the work] was prized by lawyers as a supposedly authentic record of “[Scotland’s] most ancient law”’ (Reg. Maj., p. 1). However, its

‘text, date, authorship and authenticity are all matters of acute and long-continued controversy’ (Walker, LHS, p. 108). 12. The first legislative reference to the Regiam Majestatem is in an Act of the Scottish Parliament (LAP 1425, c. 54; APS ii 10, c. 10; RPS, 1426/13) passed during the reign of James I, which set up a commission to ‘see and examine the Buiks of Law, that is to say, Regiam Majestatem, and Quoniam Attachiamenta’, and ‘mend the Lawes, that neids mendement’. The Regiam Majestatem was wrongly ascribed by James’s advisers ‘to the authorship or patronage of David I himself [reigned 1124–53]’. It seems that nothing came of the project of 1425 (Reg. Maj., pp. 1–2; see also The Laws of Medieval Scotland, ed. Alice Taylor, The Stair Society, Vol. 66, pp. 12–13). David II reigned 1329–71. 13. MS. ‘English . . . Sal Law’ interlined. ‘Sal Law’ is a reference to Salic law, for which, and JB’s enthusiasm for entails as a means of securing the male line of succession to estates, see pp. 157–58 n. 2. 14. That is, the speeches of the Lords of Council and Session in the Douglas Cause, which were published by William Anderson, writer in Edinburgh, in 1768 (The Speeches and Judgement of the Right Honourable The Lords of Council and Session in Scotland, upon The important Cause, His Grace GeorgeJames Duke of Hamilton and others, Pursuers; Against Archibald Douglas, Esq; Defender). There is no reference to any review of that work by JB in the list of JB’s periodical publications in Lit. Car. pp. 215–66. 15. That is, a copy of his Crit. Rev. with all the authors marked.

Monday 2 May Morning [ — ] Lett[er] from Zelide — termagant1 [ — ] Reviews &c. Gent[leman’s] mag[azine] noble2 [ — ]3 Home of Billy4 — Frank Stewart — Sent note to Dav. Hume. He came, was most placid — Said it required great goodness of disposition to withstand baleful effects of X[tiani]ty[.]5 Then came Alexr. Bruce6 [ — ] curious little man — But like.7 Just then entered Mr. Johns[on], I jumped & embracd8 — Thou great man — Dont call names. He would not dine [ — ] had 310

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 310

27/02/23 6:14 PM

2 may 1768 bad spirits — I run on about the praise of my Book — Sir your Book is very well — The Account may be had more from other Books. But the Tour is extremely well. It entertains every body. Sir every body who wishes you well pleas’d9 — Ask’d him to review — No [ — ] one Ass scratch10 — Liberty — Sir they mistake — universal liberty without private. Political libert[y] is only as many private as can be happy. Lib[erty] of press not much [ — ] suppose you & I & 200 more restrained [ — ] what then[?] [W]hat proportion[?]11 — Aye but 10,000 from reading12 us — Yes they are the wretches. Not mark pronunciat[io]n as not write on dancing.13 1. The letter from Belle de Zuylen is not reported (Corr. 7, p. 58). However, in a letter to WJT, JB described the letter he had written to her and her response, which he sent to WJT (referring to it as ‘this acid epistle’). His letter, he says, ‘was candid, fair, conscientious. I told her of many difficulties. I told her my fears from her levity & infidel notions, at the same time admiring her & hoping she was altered for the better.’ As for her reply, he says: ‘Could any Actress at any of the Theatres attack one with a keener (what is the word not fury something softer—). The lightening that flashes with so much brilliance may scorch. And does not her esprit do so? Is she not a termagant or at least, will she not be one by the time she is forty? And she is near thirty now . . . I have written to her that we are agreed. “My Pride (say I) & your vanity would never agree”’’ (To WJT, 14 May 1768, Corr. 6, p. 236). On 2 June, Belle writes to Constant d’Hermenches, saying that she had been translating JB’s Account of Corsica (into French): ‘I was far advanced in the task, but I wanted permission to change some things that were bad, and to abridge others which French impatience would have found unmercifully long-winded. The author, although he had at the moment almost made up his mind to marry me if I would have him, was not willing to sacrifice a syllable of his book to my taste. I wrote to him that I was firmly decided never to marry him, and I have abandoned the translation’ (taken from translation of letter in Holland, Heinemann p. 372, McGraw-Hill p. 383).

2. That is, the reviews of An Account of Corsica. For a list of the reviews, see Lit. Car. p. 310. 3. MS. ‘Lett . . . noble’ interlined. 4. Patrick Home (1728–1808), advocate (admitted 15 July 1755 (Fac. Adv., p. 104)), ‘of Billie (or Billy), an estate in the parish of Bunkle and Preston, Berwickshire ([OGS]), and of Wedderburn, a mansion in Duns parish, Berwickshire ([OGS]). He built Paxton House – a fine neo-Palladian mansion – in Hutton parish, Berwickshire ([OGS]), and was MP for Berwickshire from 1784 to 1796. He “acquired a reputation for whimsical humour or even eccentricity” (Namier and Brooke, [ii.] 634)’ (LPJB 1, p. 295 n. 1026). 5. Christianity. In his letter to WJT of 14 May, JB would remark: ‘David is really amiable. I allways regret to him his unlucky principles and he smiles at my faith. But I have a hope which he has not or pretends not to have’ (Corr. 6, p. 236). 6. Unidentified. 7. ‘Like’ may be short for ‘likeable’. ‘It is perhaps more probable that [JB] meant that Bruce bore a physical resemblance to some unmentioned person’ (BP, vii. 189 n. 2). 8. JB told WJT in the letter of 14 May, at the beginning of a lengthy list of his visitors and social activities: ‘I am really the Great Man now. I have had David Hume in the forenoon & Mr Johnson in the afternoon of the same day visiting me’ (Corr. 6, p. 236). 9. SJ would elaborate on his verdict in a letter to JB dated 9 Sept. 1769: ‘Your

311

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 311

27/02/23 6:14 PM

2 may 1768 History is like other histories, but your Journal is in a very high degree curious and delightful. There is between the history and the journal that difference which there will always be found between notions borrowed from without, and notions generated within. Your history was copied from books; your journal rose out of your own experience and observation. You express images which operated strongly upon yourself, and you have impressed them with great force upon your readers. I know not whether I could name any narrative by which curiosity is better excited, or better gratified’ (Life ii. 70). 10. That is, ‘one ass [should not] scratch [another]’. ‘[SJ] was remembering the Latin proverb, “Mutuum muli scabunt”’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 177 n. 3, McGrawHill p. 166 n. 4). 11. This passage is expanded in Life as follows: ‘He talked in his usual style with a rough contempt of popular liberty. “They

make a rout about universal liberty, without considering that all that is to be valued, or indeed can be enjoyed by individuals, is private liberty. Political liberty is good only so far as it produces private liberty. Now, Sir, there is the liberty of the press, which you know is a constant topick. Suppose you and I and two hundred more were restrained from printing our thoughts: what then? What proportion would that restraint upon us bear to the private happiness of the nation?”’ (Life ii. 60). 12. MS. ‘readering’. This means ‘10,000 [restrained] from reading us’. 13. BP, vii. 190, suggests the following interpretation of this passage (the supposed missing words, and parts of words, being shown in italics): ‘He said he did not mark the pronunciation of words in his Dictionary, because it is easier to learn pronunciation by the ear than by marks. One does not write on pronunciation as one does not write on dancing. Both must be learned by practice.’

Tuesday 3 May Mckonochie & Richardson[.]1 Gen Oglethorpe — propos’d Cork jackets to attack fortified towns2 — Men could do it if fish3 — Then Sir Jo. Dick[,] then Lord Lytt.[elton] on Christ[ian] Relig[ion] — how strong the mirac[le]s in Greece amidst Philos.[ophers][.]4 Hume has glanc’d at me5 — Alexander6 was discoved because Lucian chancd to come in way. No Lucian to Paul — yes, thousand Lucians. Sir Jo went — Lord Lytt[elton] had been with Lord Hard[wicke] — Bid me not come to Peoples doors as Minister [ — ] Get introduc’d — speak as hinting — not as pointing out — Mean time Corsican Club7 [ — ] Make good blood — Dont appear too hotheaded.8 Then Lord Drum[mond];9 Then De Giffard[ière]10 — Ownd Zelide no Principle [ — ] virtuous par fierté par orgueil11 — Evening very easy [ — ] wrote very busily — 1. Possibly William Richardson, printer (BP, Index, p. 286). JB refers to Richardson in his journal entries for 6, 8 and 9 Sept. 1769 (Search of a Wife, Heinemann pp. 298, 302–03, McGraw-Hill pp. 281, 284–86). 2. That is, that soldiers should wear cork jackets when attacking fortified towns.

3. Oglethorpe is presumably suggesting the use of cork jackets as an aid to buoyancy by soldiers attacking fortified towns surrounded by water. JB’s ‘Handlist’ (c. 1771) of the books in his Edinburgh townhouse in James’s Court includes a volume entitled The Art of Swimming, the second edition (1764) of an English translation of a seventeenth-century French work by

312

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 312

27/02/23 6:14 PM

3 may 1768 Melchisédech Thévenot (Boswell’s Books, #3269, pp. 356–57), which describes (in the Preface) the military and naval value of swimming and diving, and specifically suggests (at pp. 17 and 20) the use of corks (along with animal bladders and reeds) as flotation devices to assist beginners. 4. BP, vii. 190, suggests the following interpretation of this passage (the supposed missing words, and parts of words, being shown in italics): ‘how strong the evidence for the miracles must have been to cause them to be accepted even in Greece, amidst the Philosophers’. 5. That is, Lord Lyttelton said ‘Hume has glanc’d at me’ (presumably meaning that Hume in his writings has made a glancing reference to Lyttelton’s work). 6. The false prophet, Alexander the Paphlagonian, exposed by the ancient Greek satirist Lucian in his Alexander. 7. For the Corsican Club, see p. 298 n. 9. 8. BP, vii. 190, suggests the following interpretation of what Lord Hardwicke said (the supposed missing words being shown in italics): ‘He bid me not come to People’s doors as a minister from Corsica, but to get introduc’d; to speak as hinting, not as pointing out. In the mean time the Corsican Club would make good blood. “Don’t appear too hotheaded,” he said.’ 9. Thomas Lundin Drummond (c. 1742–80), styled Lord Drummond, second son of James Drummond (1707–81), 13th Earl of Perth. Later in 1768 he would go to America to take care of an estate belonging to his kinsman James Louis Drummond (1750–1800), 4th Earl of Melfort. In the same year he became a member of the St. Andrew Society of New York, and would serve as its President from 1773 to 1774. His mother was Rachel Bruce, third and youngest daughter of Thomas Bruce (1663–1740), 7th Earl of Kincardine. He was thus a distant relation of JB, whose paternal grandmother was Lady Elizabeth Bruce, daughter of Alexander Bruce, 2nd Earl of Kincardine (see pp. 88–89 n. 2, p. 143 n. 2, and Ominous Years,

Chart III, p. 376) (Scots Peer. iii. 490, vi. 72, vii. 57–58; Comp. Peer. x. 488). 10. Rev. Charles de Guiffardière (or Guiffardiere) (c. 1740–1810). JB had met Guiffardière in Utrecht in 1763 and had described him as follows: ‘[A] truly curious and wonderful subject. This young man is a native of Hainault. He has never been in England, and yet he can not only read but speak the English language perfectly well. He has been a great deal in the company of English people, but I have seen several foreigners who have spent a long time in England and yet could not speak so well as Monsieur Guiffardière does. He has a great deal of vivacity, and I am told that in his youth he was an amorous and gallant man who always loved the society of ladies, and perhaps was sometimes a worshipper in the temple of Venus. But now he has become a reverend priest [i.e. a Protestant clergyman]’ (French Theme, c. 28 Sept. 1763 (translated and quoted in Holland, Heinemann p. 48 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 49 n. 5)). ‘Guiffardière later became French reader to Queen Charlotte and instructor in [French] to the royal princesses: he appears in Fanny Burney’s Diary as “Mr. Turbulent”. His levity always shocked [JB], a situation which he was aware of and deliberately exploited’ (Holland, Heinemann p. 48 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 49 n. 5). On 18 Mar. 1769, JB would write to Guiffardière, who was then in Naples, in reproachful terms: ‘You know I have allways shewn my dissapprobation of those libertine sallies which you have thought proper to present me with, and have told you that such a man as you know yourself to be, should be particularly cautious against the approaches of depravity. Your last letter was the most offensive that I have yet had from you. Much is said against the restraints of moral severity, and much against what is called love for the Wife of another. If this is a joke, forgive me for saying it is a poor one. If you are in earnest, my prejudices oblige me to shun a Man who with the coolness of an enfeebled constitution can defend a violation of the most sacred bond which Society has formed. If M.

313

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 313

27/02/23 6:14 PM

3 may 1768 de Giffardiêrre is henceforth to write in the stile of his last letter to me, I would advise him to find Correspondents who will be pleased with the liberal sentiments of so gay a Preacher. If he does me the honour to write to me as a Man of Science & Virtue, I shall very readily make him my best returns when not distracted by business or by cares’ (Yale MS. L 593). Guiffardière would be ordained deacon and priest in England in 1769, appointed prebendary of Salisbury in 1792 and rector of St. Peter’s, Great Berkhamsted, in 1798

(Gent. Mag. LXXX i. 93; CCED, ; Parish Church of St Peter, Great Berkhamsted, website, ). When JB met Guiffardière in London again in Mar. 1794, Guiffardière was preacher in the Protestant French chapel in St. James’s Palace (Great Biographer, p. 296 n. 7). 11. Virtuous ‘through pride, through arrogance’ (French).

Wednesday 4 May Sir Jo Pring[le] & Sir Jo Dick all here with Mr. Forbes.1 Mr. Mckonochie a little — Wrote & was easy. 1. Duncan Forbes (d. 1779), ‘an Edinburgh surgeon and medical officer for the Second Troop of Horse Guards, 1756–78’ (Corr. 5, p. 262 n. 3). Forbes, who was a friend of Pringle, had also treated JB in Aug. 1767 (see To Sir Alexander Dick, 21 Aug. 1767, Corr. 5, p. 205 and n. 2; From Sir John Pringle, 4 Dec. 1767, Corr.

5, pp. 261 and 262 n. 3) and would treat him again in Oct. 1769 (Mem. 16 Oct. 1769 (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 337, McGraw-Hill p. 317)). On 26 Apr., JB had written to WJT that ‘My Surgeon Mr Forbes of the Horse guards says my distemper is one of the worst he has seen’ (Corr. 6, p. 232).

Thursday 5 May Donaldson Bookseller1 breakfast2 [ — ] Albinus from Utrecht called.3 He & I were quite easy. His ideas of Zelide were quite adverse to her being my wife. I had a letter from my worthy father4 — by no means agree5 — Yes I[’]ll take the Ghost’s word for a thousand pounds.6 What a comfort to have so steady a friend at home. Willison called. Sir Jo Dick — Mckon[ochie] tea — very easy now.7 1. Alexander Donaldson (d. 1794), Edinburgh bookseller, ‘was the publisher of the Collection of Original Poems by Scotch Gentlemen, which came out in 1762, containing a number of poems by [JB]. In 1773, Donaldson was to win an extremely important copyright case in the Court of Session. This was the case of John Hinton v. Alexander Donaldson and Others (reported in Morison’s Dictionary, 8307–8), in which Donaldson was represented by [JB], Ilay Campbell (the future Lord President) and John Maclaurin [1734–96, admitted advo-

cate 3 Aug. 1756, appointed Lord of Session (as Lord Dreghorn) 17 Jan. 1788 (Fac. Adv., p. 139)]. For further details, see [LPJB 1, pp. lii-liii]’ (LPJB 1, p. 70 n. 267). JB had described Donaldson as ‘the Great Mr. Donaldson, a man of uncommon activity and enterprise in business, who has a smattering of humour and tolerable address’ (Journ. 27 Oct. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 96). 2. Words above deleted – perhaps ‘Gen Ogle for a little’. 3. JB had met Albinus, who has not been further identified, in Utrecht in Dec.

314

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 314

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7 may 1768 1763 and had referred to him as ‘a coarse Dutch wit’. But his opinion of him rose somewhat in subsequent meetings (Mem. 5–7 Dec. 1763, Holland, Heinemann pp. 82–83, McGraw-Hill pp. 84–85).

4. Not reported. 5. That is, would not agree to JB going to Utrecht. 6. Hamlet, III, ii, 304–5. 7. MS. ‘now’ interlined.

Friday 6 May Gen Ogle[thorpe] a little morning — Then Frank Stewart. Then Lord Drummond [ — ] eat eggs — sat till Gen O. came who said mob was now best blood [ — ] old families sunk.1 Mortimers2 sweeping streets. Coffee.3 Great Clarke4 morning, who read Cors[ica] believe you thus.5 1. That is, the mob was composed of old families sunk. 2. That is, members of the noble Mortimer family, Earls of March. The last Mortimer to be Earl of March was Edmund Mortimer (1391–1424/5), 5th Earl of March (Comp. Peer. viii. 450–53). 3. MS. ‘streets, Coffee’. 4. Samuel Clarke (1675–1729), D.D., theologian and philosopher. He was the ‘most influential British metaphysician and theologian in the generation between Locke and Berkeley, and only Shaftesbury rivals him in ethics. In all three areas he was very critical of Hobbes, Spinoza, and Toland. Deeply influenced by Newton, Clarke was critical of Descartes’ metaphysics of space and body because of the experimental evidence for [Newtonian] doctrines of space, the vacuum, atoms, and attraction and because he believed Descartes’ identifying body with extension and removing final causes from nature had furthered irreligion and had naturally developed into Spinozism’ (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ). His works were among those SJ had recommended to JB, who had been confessing to religious doubts, in conversation in London on 24 May 1763 (LJ 1762–63, p. 230).

5. BP, vii. 191, suggests the following interpretation of this passage (the supposed missing words being shown in italics): ‘He told you the story of the Great Clarke in the morning, and you reflected that those who read “Corsica” believe you thus.’ ‘[JB] was discovering that his chosen method of writing laid him open to the charge of personal fatuity. [Thomas] Gray, anticipating Macaulay by more than sixty years, had already observed that Corsica proved “that any fool may write a most valuable book by chance, if he will only tell us what he heard and saw with veracity” [Gray’s Works, ii. 498 (Letter CXXXVI to Mr. Walpole 25 Feb. 1768)]. [JB] comforted himself all his life with the story of Dr. Clarke, and finally nailed his colours to the mast by printing it in the Dedication to the Life of Johnson: “It is related of the great Dr. Clarke, that when in one of his leisure hours he was unbending himself with a few friends in the most playful and frolicksome manner, he observed Beau Nash approaching; upon which he suddenly stopped: ‘My boys, (said he,) let us be grave: here comes a fool.’ The world, my friend, I have found to be a great fool”’ (BP, vii. 191 n. 1).

Saturday 7 May General a moment — tedious but instructive. Kenricks Letter advertised.1 Sir Jo Dick a little. Afternoon wrote letters.2 Was now very easy. D. Hume had been morning, & told D. Bedford.3 315

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 315

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7 may 1768 1. ‘William Kenrick (c. 1725–79) had published numerous poems and written for the Monthly Review. In 1765 he had attacked SJ’s scholarship in A Review of Doctor Johnson’s New Edition of Shakespeare and now was angered by JB’s boast that he had sent Paoli “some of our best books of morality and entertainment, in particular the [W]orks of [Mr.] Samuel Johnson” (Corsica [1st ed.], p. 298 n.). Kenrick responded with An Epistle to [James] Boswell, Esq., Occasioned by his Having Transmitted the Moral Writings of Dr. [Samuel] Johnson to Pascal Paoli, 1768. The Epistle argued that JB’s gift to Paoli of SJ’s moral writings would pervert and corrode the native simplicity of Corsican virtue with Johnsonian sophistry (Monthly Review, Sept. 1768, xxxix. 209–13). JB wanted to respond to Kenrick’s pamphlet, but SJ, “who knew that my doing so would only gratify Kenrick, by keeping alive what would soon die away of itself, would not suffer me to take any notice of it” (Life ii. 61)’ (Corr. 7, p. 60 n. 13). 2. The letters included a letter to Sir Alexander Dick, in which JB wrote: ‘My Book is rising in fame every day. It has conjured up a fiend, a foe to my illustrious friend Mr. Johnson who is to publish in a few days “A friendly and compassionate letter to James Boswell Esq. occasioned by his having transmitted the moral writings of Dr. Samuel Johnson to Pascal Paoli etc.” We shall see what the evil spirit inspires’ (To Sir Alexander Dick, 7 May 1768, Corr. 7, pp. 58–59). 3. John Russell (1710–71), 4th Duke of Bedford, first Lord of the Admiralty

1744–47/8, appointed member of the Privy Council 1744, Col. 1745, Maj.-Gen. 1755, Lt.-Gen. 1759, one of the Principal Secretaries of State at the Southern Department 1747/8–51, Knight of the Garter 1749, Lord Privy Seal 1761–63, Ambassador to France 1762–63, Lord President of the Council 1763–65 (Comp. Peer. ii. 82–83; Army List, 1760, p. 3 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/8)). BP, vii. 192, suggests the following interpretation of this passage (the supposed missing words, and parts of words, being shown in italics): ‘[Hume] told me that the Duke of Bedford was very fond of my Book.’ In his letter of 14 May to WJT, JB would write of this visit that ‘David Hume came on purpose the other day to tell me that the Duke of Bedford was very fond of my Book, & had recommended it to the Duchess’ (Corr. 6, p. 236). The Duchess, his second wife, was Gertrude Leveson-Gower (d. 1794) (Comp. Peer. ii. 83). This news rather startled WJT, who replied: ‘Upon what footing is David Hume with people of that rank?’ (27 May, Corr. 6, p. 239). As the editor of Corr. 6 explains, ‘The Duke had favoured Hume’s appointment as embassy secretary in Paris in 1765: “if the old Ministry return, I can look upon the Duke of Bedford alone as my Friend . . . If the present Ministry stand, I have, by Lord Hertford’s Means, many and great Friends” (Hume to John Home of Ninewells, 14 July 1765, Letters DH, i. 512)’ (Corr. 6, p. 239 n. 14). The reference to Lord Hertford is to Francis Seymour-Conway (1718–94), 1st Earl (later 1st Marquis) of Hertford, ambassador to France 1763–65 (Oxford DNB).

Sunday 8 May Calm forenoon — Mr. Bosville1 — Afternoon Two Mess Dillys[,] a Rev Mr. Anderson near Berwick[,]2 Dr. Wright,3 Col4 Charles Ross5 — Port & then tea when Ross went — I joked the Sailors rise, the soldiers rise, the Booksellers will rise next.6 Ay said E Dilly[,] rise in price of Books — I said well the Booksellers will rise. C. Dilly[:] We know the Authours rise — very well. C. dilly put too little tea in. O said I, he teaches me frugality — Tells me one dish is as good as a hundred &c. 316

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 316

27/02/23 6:14 PM

9 may 1768 1. Godfrey Bosville. 2. Rev. Walter Anderson (d. 1800), historian and Church of Scotland minister, M.A. (Edinburgh, 1742), ordained minister at Chirnside, Berwickshire (1756), D.D. (Marischal College, Aberdeen) (Oxford DNB). 3. Probably Richard Wright. 4. MS. ‘Wright. Col’.

5. Lt.-Col. Charles Ross, appointed Lt.-Col. on 7 Feb. 1762, formerly of Sutherland’s Battalion (Army List, 1769, p. 10 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/19)). 6. JB was joking on the uprisings in London following Wilkes’s election as M.P. for Middlesex in Mar. For the rising of the sailors, see pp. 319–20 n. 1.

Monday 9 May Col Gould, Mr. Mckonochie[,] Cha Dick[,]1 Geo L. Scott,2 Arch3 McDon.[ald],4 Fr. Stew[art][,]5 Donaldson, Bookseller,6 Mrs. McDowal[,]7 Mr. Strange,8 Sir9 Jo Dick[.] [R]esolve not rattle10 — Ev.[ening] Great Clarke.11 1. Charles Dick (1736–d. after 1805), of the estate of Frackafield (near Lerwick in Shetland) (Corr. 5, Appendix A, p. 269), which estate, ‘heavily encumbered’, he would be obliged to sell in 1774 (Stodart, p. 267). Like John Dick, the British Consul in Leghorn (for whom, see p. 153 n. 2), Charles Dick claimed the dormant baronetcy of Braid. JB, who refers to Dick as ‘a jeweler at the top of the Hay-market’, lays out the details of his claim, which is plausible, in his letter of 18 Apr. to Sir Alexander Dick (Corr. 7, pp. 50–51). Newspapers of 1772 list ‘Charles Dick, late of ArundelStreet near Panton-Square in the County of Middlesex, Jeweller, Dealer and Chapman’ as bankrupt (e.g. Manchester Mercury, 24 Nov. 1772). 2. George Lewis Scott (1708–80), mathematician, called to the Bar at the Middle Temple, elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1737, appointed sub-preceptor to the future George III in 1750 (notwithstanding being thought of as a Jacobite), appointed a Commissioner of Excise in 1758 (Oxford DNB). He was an old friend of Lord Auchinleck, and one of the first people upon whom JB called socially on arrival in London in Nov. 1762, when, says JB, Scott ‘was very kind & polite to me’ (Journ. 21 Nov. 1762, LJ 1762–63, p. 9, p. 333 n. 4). He was a very large, tall

man. Frances Burney recorded meeting him in 1769, finding him ‘very sociable and facetious too’, extremely entertaining ‘with droll anecdotes and stories among the Great and about the Court’ and ‘so goodnatured and unassuming that I was quite at my ease with him’ (Early Diary FB, i. 49). 3. MS. ‘Scott. Arch’. 4. MS. ‘McDon. —.’ Archibald Macdonald (1747–1826), third and posthumous son of Sir Alexander Macdonald (1711–46) of Sleat, 7th Bt., and his second wife, Margaret (d. 1799), daughter of Alexander Montgomerie, 9th Earl of Eglinton, entered at Lincoln’s Inn 1765, B.A. (Christ Church, Oxford, 1768), later called to the English Bar 24 Nov. 1770, M.A. (Christ Church, Oxford, 1772), M.P. Hindon 1777–80, Newcastle-under-Lyme 1780–93, K.C. 1778, Solicitor-General 1784–88, Attorney-General 1788–93, knighted 1788, Privy Councillor 1793, Chief Baron of Exchequer 1793–1813, created Bt. 1813 (Oxford DNB; Thorne, iv. 486; Alum. Oxon. iii. 890; Comp. Bar. ii. 291–92; Scots Peer. iii. 454–58). JB would find him ‘flippant’ (Journ. 4 Apr. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 121) and ‘pert’ (Journ. 6 Apr. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 124). ‘His smartness’, JB would write, ‘displeased me. It made my nerves start like crackers going off’ (Journ. 1 Apr. 1776, Ominous Years, p. 307).

317

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 317

27/02/23 6:14 PM

9 may 1768 5. MS. ‘Fr. Stew.’ interlined. 6. MS. ‘Donaldson. Bookseller’. 7. Mrs. Christian Macdowal. MS. ‘Mrs. McDowal’ interlined. JB would record that on Good Friday, 1772, ‘I was in solemn frame . . . By way of penance, and upon honour seriously so, I went and breakfasted with Mrs. Christian Macdowal’ (Journ. 17 Apr. 1772, Defence, Heinemann p. 130, McGraw-Hill p. 125). 8. Robert Strange (1721–92), lineengraver. ‘During the Jacobite rising of 1745 Strange joined Prince Charles Edward’s lifeguard . . . , designed Jacobite currency, and was with the prince at Culloden. His engraving of a portrait of the prince, by Allan Ramsay, became an important image in Jacobite propaganda in 1745–6.’ He was made a fellow of the newly formed Society of Artists in 1765 and exhibited with them from 1768 to 1775. He would be knighted in 1787. He ‘engraved with unusual clarity and delicacy and produced some beautiful prints, especially those after Titian, Correggio, and Van Dyck’ (Oxford DNB). When JB and his friend AE visited David Hume in Edinburgh in Nov. 1762, they had found him, says JB, ‘in his house in James’s Court,

in a good room newly fitted up, hung round with Strange’s prints’ (Journ. 4 Nov. 1762, Harvest Jaunt, p. 100). Strange’s wife was Isabella Lumisden (1719–1806), sister of the Jacobite politician Andrew Lumisden (1720–1801) (Oxford DNB), with whom JB had become friendly in 1765 while in Rome, where Lumisden (described by JB as a ‘true worthy Scotsman’ and a ‘genteel man’ (Mem. 27 Mar. 1765, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 64 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 61 n. 7)) was secretary to James Francis Edward Stewart, the Old Pretender. JB had socialized with Strange in Paris while on his way home from Italy in Jan. 1766 (Mem. 29–30 Jan. 1766, Grand Tour II, Heinemann pp. 290–91, McGraw-Hill pp. 275– 76). In a letter of 16 May 1767, Strange had informed JB that he had sent to Edinburgh ‘four impressions of my late works which you’ll do me the favour to accept of – they will recal to your remembrance certain pictures you must have admired when in Italy’ (Yale MS. C 2587). 9. MS. ‘Strange — Sr.’. 10. That is, JB resolved not to rattle. 11. That is, in the evening JB thought about the Great Samuel Clarke.

Tuesday 10 May The old General, Home1 of Billy & Mckonochie forenoon. You was too eager with the worthy Gen. & raged on subjecting inferiours;2 & Home joined. You was sorry at opposing too much the worthy man so full of age & spirit. Mckon[ochie] staid & eat a Steak & you & he studied Pres.[ident’s] speech.3 No philosophy or wit today. 1. MS. ‘General — Home’. 2. JB apparently means that he argued forcefully in favour of social subordination. In his journal for 25 June 1763, he had approvingly quoted SJ as remarking that ‘I am a friend to Subordination. It is most conducive to the happiness of Society.

There is a reciprocal pleasure in governing & being governed’ (LJ 1762–63, p. 251). 3. The speech of Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session, in the Douglas Cause. JB is looking at the account of the speech in Anderson, Speeches, pp. 1–45.

Wednesday 11 May Lord Drummond[,] Sir W. Forbes[,] Sir Jo. Dick. Heard of Lord Pembroke’s going to Corsica,1 & had application for letter. This roused me — Fine weather made me 318

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 318

27/02/23 6:14 PM

13 may 1768 impatient to get out. Evening Mr. Dav. Kennedy as merry as ever.2 He informed you of report that you had written to Mr. Haire3 & used father[’]s name as for Col Mont.[gomerie]4 [ — ] assured him twas false — yet was hurt to find how stories can be raised[.] [N]o Philos[ophy] or wit today. 1. Henry Herbert (1734–94), 10th Earl of Pembroke. He had a very active military career, joining the army as an Ensign in 1752, commanding the Cavalry Brigade in Germany 1761–63, and serving as Col. of the 1st Dragoons 1764–94, later Lt.-Gen. (1770), Gen. (1782) (Comp. Peer. x. 426). 2. For David Kennedy, see pp. 69–70 n. 2. JB would refer to him as being a ‘joker . . . and nothing more’ and ‘a good, honest, merry fellow indeed, but . . . devoid of the talents which distinguish a man in public life’ (Journ. 5 Apr. 1773, Defence, Heinemann p. 168, McGraw-Hill p. 161). 3. Possibly Ivie Hair (d. c. 1776), of Rankinston (a farmstead in Coylton parish, east Ayrshire, south of Drongan), writer,

admitted notary public 27 June 1730 (aged twenty-one) (LPJB 1, p. 180 n. 611; LPJB 2, p. 413; Finlay, i. 168, No. 855). 4. The Hon. Archibald Montgomerie, later (1769) 11th Earl of Eglinton (for whom, see pp. 69–70 n. 2). Montgomerie was Col. of the 51st Regt. of Foot, 1767–95, and served as M.P. for Ayrshire, 1761–68 (Corr. 5, p. 237 n. 4). He would be appointed Maj.-Gen. in 1772, Lt.-Gen. in 1777, Governor of Edinburgh Castle in 1782, Gen. in 1793, and Col. of the 2nd Dragoons in 1795 (Namier and Brooke, iii. 157). In the 1768 general election he stood again for Ayrshire but was defeated by David Kennedy (see p. 223 n. 15), to whom Lord Auchinleck had given his support (Namier and Brooke, i. 471).

Thursday 12 May Mr. Home of Billy. Told me of Percival Pott1 — Saw him [ — ] quite firm.2 Read much. 1. Percivall Pott (1714–88), surgeon, appointed senior surgeon at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, 1765. At this time, he lived in Watling Street. His patients included SJ, Thomas Gainsborough and David Garrick (Oxford DNB). He

‘helped to revise surgical practice of the day. Pott’s disease and Pott’s fracture take their names from him’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 178 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 167 n. 7). 2. That is, JB was quite firm in spite of the pain.

Friday 13 May Sir John Dick a little. Then Mr. Hood — Wanted me to write about the Sailors riots & Genoese Passports.1 And2 said he[,] Tis but heaving into the Gazeteer or Ledger.3 Evening Mckonochie. 1. JB would do as Hood suggested, writing on the proposed subjects in an essay which he later contributed as Essay no. VI to his collection of essays published as British Essays in Favour of the Brave Corsicans

(for which, see pp. 304–05 n. 3). The essay, dated 17 May 1768, is on pp. 31–40 and is listed on p. xiv as follows: ‘The rising of the seamen in London shewn to be occasioned for want of employment in trade to

319

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 319

27/02/23 6:14 PM

13 may 1768 Corsica, as well as in the along-shore trade, which has been shamefully yielded to the Genoese’. Although signed ‘P. J.’, the essay can certainly be attributed to JB (Lit. Car. p. 81). On p. 33, JB refers to ‘those insurrections of the sailors, which, for some days past, have been so alarming’. He goes on to suggest, on p. 35, that the sailors’ ‘present demand to have their wages raised is the mere wanton effect of idleness’, and he argues, on pp. 35–36, that ‘there are at present a very great number of sailors thrown idle. All who are concerned in mercantile affairs, know that what is called the alongshore trade of the British up the Mediterranean, has of late years been extremely diminished. And what has this been owing to? Why, to the incredible number of British passports which have been granted to the Genoese.’ JB gives an explanation for this situation on p. 36: ‘A cunning Genoese . . . shall get a fellow in Gibraltar, or in Port Mahon [Minorca], who is not worth a groat, to take the name of being proprietor of a vessel, and then, as all the inhabitants of Gibraltar and Minorca are reckoned British subjects, one of our passes is procured, and prostituted to serve the gainful purposes of a set of wretches.’ On pp. 37–38, JB remarks: ‘[W]hile such a practice of granting these passports is generally permitted, our trade must suffer consider-

ably. In this one branch, the number of our vessels, which was formerly above five hundred, is diminished down to about fifty. By this alone we may reckon at least five thousand seamen are thrown out of employment . . . I therefore most sincerely wish, that our rulers would take proper measures to hinder the granting of British passports to the Genoese: In which case, numbers of the seamen, who with excellent intentions, and brave hearts, are now, from an absolute want of employment, disturbing the peace, will then be engaged on more useful exertions of their high spirits.’ The essay ends, on. p. 40, with a plea for the recall of the proclamation of 1763 prohibiting commercial intercourse with the Corsicans, such proclamation having been issued, claims JB, ‘at a time when the real situation of Corsica was unknown’. 2. MS. ‘Passports. &’. 3. The reference to the ‘Ledger’ is presumably to the manuscript ledgers which were used for the section of Lloyd’s List (published from 1734) relating to shipping movements and casualties. The reference to the ‘Gazeteer’ is presumably to the The Universal Gazetteer, the second edition of which was published in 1760. The word ‘heaving’ is used here as a nautical term (as in, e.g., heaving the anchor, ‘heave to’, etc.).

Saturday 14 May Mr. Kennedy — then Sir Jo. Dick & Capt Meadows.1 I talked of some things tho’ in my Book. I have observed Mr. Johnson do so. Almost evry man you meet is either from not having read, or having forgotten, just as if he had never seen a Book — Sir Jo. Pring[le][,] Dr. Franklin[,]2 Mr. Rose[,]3 Mr. Burgh4 dined. All was elegant. You maintained never correct book — Sir Jo opposed — But said I Lord Kames has made El[ement]s of Crit[icism] so, tis not the same book5 — Sir Jo.[:] ‘Then it’s6 another Book.’ Very well — Burgh allways saying Ah — That came off so fine &7 dry[,] & Sir Jo with leg crossed & shrewd gravity & satisfaction[.] [Y]ou was quite happy & pleased as a man. B. & R drank tea. Franklin asked whether Infidels or Protestants had done most to pull down Popery. We disputed the price of Robertson’s Book8 — the good done by preaching — the english tone superiour to Scotch — More musick here — except whistling[.] 320

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 320

27/02/23 6:14 PM

15 may 1768 1. Charles Medows (1737–1816), served in the Royal Navy, becoming Lt. in 1755, Commander in 1757 and Capt. in 1759, resigned from the Navy in 1763, later M.P. Nottinghamshire 1778–96, adopted the name Pierrepont instead of Medows in 1788, created Baron Pierrepont of Holme and Viscount Newark of Newark-on-Trent, 1796, created Earl of Manvers, 1806 (Comp. Peer. viii. 394–95; Namier and Brooke, iii. 128–29). 2. Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) ‘had been in England as agent for the Pennsylvania assembly from 1757 to 1761, and was currently on his second visit of 1764–74 to London. In 1768 he acted as London agent for Georgia, in 1769 for New Jersey, and in 1770 for Massachusetts (Carl van Doren, Benjamin Franklin, 1938, ii. 359– 60). Franklin had become the best known American in Europe during his testimony before the Commons regarding the Stamp Act in Feb. 1766. At this time he was attempting to maintain a peaceable relationship with the Crown and the Government by accusing the American Tories of having misdirected British colonial policy’ (Corr. 7, p. 60 n. 1). Franklin was a close friend of Sir John Pringle’s. In Sept. 1769, JB referred to Franklin as Pringle’s ‘travelling companion’ and remarked that Franklin, whom he found with Pringle at home ‘sitting playing at chess’, was ‘all jollity and pleasantry’ (Journ. 15 Sept. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 310, McGraw-Hill p. 292). For the sake of Pringle’s health, he and Franklin had travelled together to

France for over a month in 1767 (Corr. 5, p. 262 n. 1). 3. William Rose. 4. James Burgh. 5. The first edition of Lord Kames’s Elements of Criticism came out in 1762. A second edition – with ‘additions and improvements’ – was published in 1763, and a third in 1765. 6. MS. ‘tis’ scored off and ‘it’s’ interlined above. 7. MS. ‘fine &’ interlined. 8. ‘Robertson did not have a finished manuscript [of his History of the Reign of Charles V] until spring 1768, when he went to London to negotiate with the printer– publisher William Strahan. Public anticipation was considerable, and Strahan and Thomas Cadell in London and John Balfour in Edinburgh combined to pay Robertson the record price of £3500, with £500 more for a second edition’ (Oxford DNB). See also Richard B. Sher, ‘Charles V and the Book Trade: An Episode in Enlightenment Print Culture’, in William Robertson and the Expansion of Empire, ed. Stewart J. Brown, 1997, pp. 164–95, especially 166–67. JB wrote to WJT this day, as part of the lengthy account of all the visitors and social activity his celebrity was bringing him, that ‘Dr Robertson is come up loaden with his Charles the V. Three large Quartos. He has been offered 3000 guineas for it. To what a price has literature risen!’ (Corr. 6, p. 236). WJT, for his part, approved: ‘It is indeed glorious encouragement, & does honour to the sense & taste of our times’ (27 May, Corr. 6, p. 239).

Sunday 15 May Mr. Bosville called & talked quite like one of his letters1 — Messrs. Dillys drank tea — All turned on Roberts[on’s] Book & the trade. At night Baretti came. He was pleasanter. Was for answering Kenrick — Had argued with Johnson. ‘As you expelled Lady Macklesfield from Society,2 why not so bury Wilkes[,] Kenrick[,] Campbell3 &c. You would have done real service.’ [JOHNSON.] ‘Sir I dont know but I’ve been wrong.’ Baretti talked strongly against our liberty. ‘Had you been content like other nations to have just jogged on with sometimes a good King sometimes a worse, you’d have done very well as other nations. But to please your 321

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 321

27/02/23 6:14 PM

15 may 1768 mad notions of claims of right you did an unjust & barbarous thing to turn away your King & sacrificed 400 of the best families4 — and by restraining the King’s power so much you force him & his ministers to load you with taxes to purchase power which they ought to have.’ He argued for the italian ceremonies. They are inocent said he & our people are better so than yours who get into taverns with whores & bottles & pots of beer. But said I the mind is hurt by that kind of idolatry & drawn from just notions of God. Nay said he has any common people just notions of God? Yes said I the People here — No said he they never think of God but with damn joined to it. He was really well tonight. 1. ‘That is, in a hearty, shrewd, amusing manner’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 179 n. 2, McGraw-Hill p. 167 n. 9). 2. Anne Mason (1667/8–1753), Countess of Macclesfield. She had married her first husband, Charles Gerard (c. 1659– 1701), Viscount Brandon, in 1683, when she was only fifteen years old. They separated two and a half years later. In 1694, her husband succeeded as 2nd Earl of Macclesfield. While separated, she had two illegitimate children with Richard Savage (c. 1654– 1712), 4th Earl Rivers. When giving birth to her second child, Richard, in 1697, she wore a mask to try to conceal the birth. The poet Richard Savage (d. 1743), who was a friend of SJ, later claimed to be that child, but she always insisted that both of her children had died in infancy. She and the Earl were divorced in 1698, and in 1700 she married the politician Henry Brett (1677/8–1724) (Oxford DNB, s.v. Anne Brett (née Mason) [other married name Anne Gerard, Countess of Macclesfield]). SJ supported Savage’s claim to be the illegitimate child in his

Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage, Son of the Earl Rivers (published anonymously in 1744). JB expressed the view that SJ’s ‘partiality for Savage made him entertain no doubt of his story, however extraordinary and improbable. It never occurred to him to question his being the son of the Countess of Macclesfield, of whose unrelenting barbarity he so loudly complained, and the particulars of which are related in so strong and affecting a manner in [SJ]’s life of him’ (Life i. 169– 70). JB endeavoured to sum up the evidence and concluded: ‘the world must vibrate in a state of uncertainty as to what was the truth’ (ibid., p. 174). To this day, there remains a division of opinion as to whether or not Savage’s claim was valid. 3. Archibald Campbell. 4. Baretti is arguing against the Revolution of 1688, which led to the 1689 Claim of Right in Scotland and Declaration of Rights in England, being the constitutional documents setting out the terms on which the crowns of Scotland and England were respectively offered to William and Mary.

Monday 16 May Donaldson morning — & Sir Jo. Dick — Then Capt Bosville not a bit spoiled.1 Afternoon old John Trail a little2 [ — ] quite in love with opposite Lady. She signed3 for a note — I sent it — pretty answer [ — ] I have really strange fortune for adventures — But lets see –––4 1. Ensign William Bosville. For JB’s use of the term ‘Captain’ for junior officers, see p. 99 n. 8. 2. MS. ‘old John Trail a little’ interlined. The name John Trail was mistran-

scribed as ‘John Frail’ in BP, vii. 194, and in Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 180, McGraw-Hill p. 168. John Trail was baptised on 7 Aug. 1700 at Stirling, son of James Trail, officer in the garrison of Stirling

322

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 322

27/02/23 6:14 PM

20 may 1768 Castle, and his wife, Janet Row (OPRBB). James Trail (1650–1721) was a younger brother of the Presbyterian minister and evangelical writer Robert Trail (1642– 1716) (Ancestry, Porteous-Brown Family Tree; Oxford DNB). John Trail (spelled in some sources as Traill) was an old Boswell family acquaintance from Edinburgh, where he had long been a bookseller and stationer, active from the 1720s, and one of its most considerable publishers of devotional literature, sermons and other works of piety. His Edinburgh premises had been in the Parliament Close, making him a near neighbour of the Boswells. Among the devotional works he published were sermons and other writings of JB’s uncle, the Rev. Alexander Webster. In later life he had taken holy orders and moved to London, and at the time of JB’s journal entry was minister to a Dissenting congregation at a chapel in Cook’s Grounds, Chelsea (Faulkner, i. 259–60; Gurnall, p. 724 (list of subscribers); editorial headnote to letter to Trail dated

8 July 1755 by the devotional writer James Hervey in WJH, v. 240–41). Trail would return to Edinburgh in 1772, taking up an appointment as Morning Lecturer at the Tron Church (Butler, p. 256). Trail died at Edinburgh on 3 Feb. 1774 (Dumfries Weekly Magazine, 8 Feb. 1774, where he is referred to as ‘the rev. Mr John Trail morning-lecturer in the New North Kirk’ (also known as Haddo’s Hole Kirk, or West St. Giles, in the north-west part of the Church of St. Giles: Cassell’s Edinburgh, i. 145; Lees, p. 301; Fasti Scot. i. 142–43)). For the meaning of the noun ‘lecture’ in Scottish church usage, see p. 248 n. 5. (This note is based on Gordon Turnbull’s article ‘James Boswell and John Trail (1700–1774)’, in Notes and Queries, Vol. 68, Issue 4, Dec. 2021, pp. 427–29.) 3. That is, she made a sign for him to send her a note (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 180 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 168 n. 2). 4. The fragment breaks off at this point.

Friday 20 May1 Called at Lord Mansfields.2 I was received. My Lord came forward and took by the hand very courteously. Mr Boswell your Servant. I am glad I was at home. I shoud have been3 very4 sorry not to have seen you. I said5 ‘My Lord Your Lordship never took any man by the hand who is more truly proud to have the honour of waiting upon your Lordship than I am’ — After talking of my having been ill thus went the Dialogue. Mans You have travelled a great deal Sir — Bos Why yes My Lord I was very fond of seeing as much as I could & travelled as much as my father would allow me. Mans. Pray Sir how did you leave your father? B Very well My Lord. M I am glad of it[.] [H]e is a very respectable man. B Indeed My Lord He is a very conscientious Judge. He is content to do his duty. He does not seek to be6 known beyond his own circle. M. ay but he is known here especially among a certain class. B. Why this great D. Cause7 has made all our Judges known here by publishing their speeches. M I have not read a word of it. But your father has been known in many other cases. (Here he paid my father several compliments of which I do not recollect the precise terms.) I was determined if possible to be at him on the great cause, So began again. B These speeches have been read over all here. M If one thought them authentick one would like to look at them. Pray how are they. B Why My Lord[,] Almon first published an edition very imperfect indeed & so often nonsence; but very genuine so far as they went.8 After this a Writer’s Clerk who had taken full notes sent each Judge his own speech to look over & make what corrections he pleased.9 Some of 323

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 323

27/02/23 6:14 PM

20 may 1768 ’em have altered a good deal. I may say there are thirteen10 looked over by them. Lord Kames who tho’ I have a great regard for him, I must say made a very poor speech.11 M ay! B yes My Lord he was taken at unawares. He was clear upon Mr. D’s side, & he thought it would go without speaking[,] cela va sans dire[,]12 &13 he would only vote.14 But being called upon unprepared, he made really a poor figure which was a pity as a man of My Lord K’s genius might have made a very fine speech. M yes indeed — B Well My Lord being sensible that he had appeard so ill, he would not meddle with his speech, &15 I may say it is now better than he made it; tho’ a very poor one. Old Lord Strichen Frazer whom your Lordship may have heard of, would not correct his speech.16 He said with great spirit — No — I have given according to my conscience. I will not appeal to the world. If those who have17 given their op[inion]s on the oth[er] side want a justification, let them publish [ — ] I want no justification. Lord S. spoke like a plain country Gent.18 Lord Alemoore Pringle made a very eloquent Speech.19 M That’s a very respectable character. B. My father made a solid sensible Speech [ — ] a few sound principles of law & a few reflections on the capital facts without going into the wide field of circumstance, which20 is endless.21 M. I was sorry for the manner in which that cause was decided. So much time employed in a question of fact22 when I should have decided it at a sitting. And such a division. It makes one suspect there was something more in that cause than the cause itself. B Why My Lord that cause has done a great deal of harm. There was in particular the Lord President.23 A terrible outcry has been raised though to be sure most unjustly in regard of his giving an opinion contrary to his conscience;24 but My Lord it was not well in the President of a court to employ his supposed superiour talents in making a violent harangue for the Pursuers. He even says in direct terms that he will not touch on the arguments on the other side25 — Now My Lord that is very dangerous. And we can prove one Judge changed by this harangue. Old Charles Erskine the Just[ice] Clerk whom your Lordship must have known,26 his son who has the title of Lord Barjarg actually wrote a new speech.27 We can bring one Clerk who wrote for him a speech for Mr. D. & another who wrote for him one for Duke H. — He took a cold & kept the house a day.28 I was surprised with Veitch Lord Elliock29 a Soundheaded fellow30 — Burnett Lord Monboddo31 made an admirable Speech & with great dignity after they had all spoken, & it was in vain to try any more.32 It was just Victrix causa diis placuit sed victa Catoni.33 M There are very respectable opinions on both sides — B yes indeed. But the cause has done a great deal of harm. When the people of a country lose their confidence in their judges, & even hint any thing against them it is terrible. Now there is Dundas the President — a most dreadful outcry has been raised against him, tho’ certainly34 most unjustly. M Ay — and does it continue[?] B Yes My Lord. His manner was so violent & then unluckily his whole speech from beginning to end is without the least foundation in the evidence. He has read it with very little attention & trusted to the Pursuers Memorial which is a most unfair paper. M. As I told you, I have not read a word of the cause. B I dare say not My Lord. M. I have not, upon my honour. (He said this like one Gentleman speaking to another.) A man of curiosity would have looked at it.35 I have their great Quartos lying here upon my table; but I have been so much employed with other things that I have not 324

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 324

27/02/23 6:14 PM

20 may 1768 had time to open them.36 (I was highly pleased to find that he allowed me to talk so freely & even seemed very desirous to hear me; for when his servant came in & asked if his chariot should wait, & I rose up, & was going away, He said ‘Sit still Mr. Boswell.’ So I thought I would do all the good I could.) B My Lord the unhappy thing was that our Judges spoke in so different a manner. Lord Lyttelton said their speeches were just pleadings on each side. M That’s very bad. My Lord Lytt[elton] I am sure will determine37 very Candidly[.]38 [H]e is a very worthy man. B I wish to God My Lord that every body thought as Lord Lytt[elton]. (I then repeated his ideas which seemed to please Lord M.) But I fancy My Lord the Peers in general will not interfere. M I dont know that.39 There never was a cause where they could do it better. B I should be sorry to see the Peers in general take upon them to judge in a cause of property. M To be sure. B What made the Judges on the Hamilton side so obnoxious was their maintaining that there was no law in the cause. Now your Lordship sees that although Gentlemen without doors are not lawyers, they are still Judges of that great principle of law [ — ] Filiation40 [ — ] on which we all depend, & every man is alarmed at the danger of that principle being taken away. When a man is called, Sir41 you must stand trial for your birthright — Very well — I put myself upon my country. I rest upon my filiation — No Sir — no law. You must bring proofs & the plaintiffs must bring proofs; & then it will be judged whose proofs are strongest. My Lord when you thus deny a man the great privilege of filiation you are taking the very pavement from under his feet. You are depriving him of half his cause. M You are so. B There was now poor Sir John Stewart[.] [W]hy[,] all the strange suggestions of his wild fancy must be made suspicions against him.42 M I did not know Sir John. B No, My Lord!43 — Your Lordship knew Lady Jane.44 M No but I was once able to [do] her a piece of service.45 B I asked my father where I was born. He mentioned a house. I asked an old woman who was in the house at the birth & she said another house. My Lord if my birth had been scrutinised, my father and46 this old woman would have been declared perjured as contradicting one another. M Very true. B Every man must be alarmed. He runs back in his own mind, & sees what difficulties must occur in such questions. We had a very busy winter with political causes.47 M The fewer political causes you have, the better. They shake your court. B They do so. I fear this great D Cause has been something of a political one. M. I imagine so. You are making great improvements at Edinburgh.48 B Yes — We have a Theatre Royal too.49 M I believe you wrote the Prologue at the opening of it. I assure you I admired it exceedingly. (B Here I told him all how Ross had applied to me & &c.50) M Upon my word it was a very pretty copy of verses and51 I like the judicious stile of it, — so conciliating; I’m sure it must have done him a great deal of good.52 I went home & felt myself in most admirable humour. N.B. Convinced him of import[ance] of Corsica.53 1. The entries for 20–22 May 1768 are contained in a fragment of JB’s notes for his journal in London, which he had commenced on 21 Apr. (see p. 304 n. 1). The fragment, designated ‘J 16’ in the Yale

editors’ cataloguing system, is endorsed ‘Conversation with Lord Mansfield’ and occupies ‘10 unpaged octavo leaves, 18 sides written on, loose’. The leaves are ‘[e]nclosed in a wrapper endorsed by James

325

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 325

27/02/23 6:14 PM

20 may 1768 Boswell the younger as quoted, containing on the inside in his hand an extract from the page of notes which originally preceded these’ (Catalogue, i. 9). 2. William Murray (1705–93), Baron Mansfield, later 1st Earl of Mansfield. ‘[He] was born at Scone and attended the grammar school at Perth but left Scotland at the age of 14, travelling to London on horseback, and never returned. He then studied at Westminster School, where he shone, and at Christ Church, Oxford. [He was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn on 23 Apr. 1724 (RHSLI, p. 392).] In 1730, he was called to the bar, and by 1738 had built up an extensive practice. In 1742, he was elected MP for Boroughbridge and appointed Solicitor-General, rising to Attorney-General in 1754. He was elevated to the bench as Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench in 1756 and was created Lord Mansfield (initially Baron [Mansfield] of Mansfield and later, in 1776, Earl of Mansfield). He was regarded as the founder of the commercial law of England and “gained the reputation by the 1780s of having become one of England’s greatest judges” (Oxford DNB)’ (LPJB 1, p. 128 n. 452). Mansfield’s London residence at the time of JB’s visit was in Bloomsbury Square (Heward, pp. 24–25, 40). 3. JB’s own MS. begins at this point. 4. MS. ‘very’ interlined. 5. MS. ‘I said’ preceded by a quotation mark. The quotation mark is here shown before ‘My Lord’. 6. MS. Indecipherable letters deleted underneath ‘e’ in ‘be’. 7. The Douglas Cause (for which, see Introduction, pp. 20–29). 8. The Speeches, Arguments, and Determinations of The Right Honourable The Lords of Council and Session in Scotland, Upon That Important Cause, Wherein His Grace the Duke of Hamilton and Others were Plaintiffs, and Archibald Douglas of Douglas Esq; Defendant, London, 1767, printed for J. Almon, opposite Burlington House in Piccadilly. A copy of this work is listed in

JB’s ‘Handlist’ (c. 1771) of the books in his Edinburgh townhouse in James’s Court (Boswell’s Books, #3128, p. 345). 9. A reference to The Speeches and Judgement of the Right Honourable The Lords of Council and Session in Scotland, upon The important Cause, His Grace George-James Duke of Hamilton and others, Pursuers; Against Archibald Douglas, Esq; Defender, by William Anderson (referred to on the title page as ‘Writer in Edinburgh’ rather than ‘Writer’s Clerk’ as stated by JB), Edinburgh, 1768. Two copies of this work are listed in JB’s ‘Handlist’ of the books in his Edinburgh townhouse in James’s Court (Boswell’s Books, #120 and #121, p. 104). In 1767, Anderson resided at Bristo Port, Edinburgh (From Edward Dilly, 10 Aug. 1767, Corr. 5, pp. 197 and 198 n. 12). Williamson’s Directory, 1775–76, p. 3, refers to two writers by the name of William Anderson, one being William Anderson, senior, W.S., Buchan Court (admitted W.S. 24 June 1774, died 1785 (W.S. Register, p. 12)), and the other being William Anderson, junior, writer, West Bow. 10. MS. Word before ‘thirteen’ deleted. Looks like ‘twelve’. 11. Henry Home, Lord Kames. It is perhaps surprising that JB adversely criticized Lord Kames’s speech, for, although it was short (only six pages), Kames found in favour of Douglas, holding that he must ‘continue in the possession which he has obtained according to the legal forms of this country, until full proof is shown that he is supposititious, and that a wrong verdict has been given in his favour . . . [I]n this case, the strongest and most convincing proof is necessary to defeat the service of the defender. The proof which has been brought for this purpose is insufficient’ (Anderson, Speeches, p. 61). See also Ross, pp. 135–36. 12. MS. ‘cela va’ interlined. 13. MS. ‘dire. &’. 14. For an explanation of how decisions of judges in the Inner House of the Court of Session were recorded, see p. 72 n. 7.

326

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 326

27/02/23 6:14 PM

20 may 1768 15. MS. ‘speech. &’. 16. Alexander Fraser, Lord Strichen. When Lord Strichen died in 1775, JB would remark: ‘Worthy Lord Strichen could not be regretted, as he had lived to a good old age’ (Journ. 21 Feb. 1775, Ominous Years, p. 69). 17. MS. ‘have’ interlined. 18. Lord Strichen found in favour of Douglas, stating that ‘I cannot think that the defender is bound to prove his own birth. This must rest upon the acknowledgment of his parents, and upon their uniform . . . treatment of him as their son. It is incumbent upon the pursuers to disprove the birth by clear and positive evidence; and none such, in my opinion, have they been able to bring’ (Anderson, Speeches, p. 47). 19. Andrew Pringle, Lord Alemoor. Lord Alemoor found in favour of Hamilton, stating: ‘Some points of law have been attempted to be brought into this cause; but to little purpose. This is not a cause which falls to be decided upon subtile points of law; it is a jury-cause; a fact to be proved or disproved, of which every person as well as a lawyer, all who now hear me, all who can attend to the proofs, are equally capable of judging, and will judge of those that judge it.’ Lord Alemoor then proceeded to examine the evidence in great detail and concluded that ‘the reasons for setting aside the service of the defender are founded in law, and sufficiently proved’ (Anderson, Speeches, pp. 131 and 173). 20. MS. ‘circumstance. wc’. 21. Lord Auchinleck found in favour of Douglas, stating: ‘With regard to filiation, I hold it to be a rule in law, that if a husband and wife own a child as theirs, they are to be believed; and this acknowledgement of parents is probatio probata in favour of that child, if direct contrary evidence is not brought; and the longer this acknowledgement has subsisted, the greater evidence arises in favour of the child, and the stronger the proof must be to get the better of it. In the case before us, it is not disputed that the defender was uniformly acknowl-

edged by Sir John Stewart and Lady Jane Douglas, as their son.’ Lord Auchinleck concluded that ‘[the defender’s] filiation by the acknowledgement of parents is full and complete, and is corroborated by the positive testimonies of unexceptionable witnesses’ (Anderson, Speeches, pp. 65 and 86). 22. MS. ‘in a question of fact’ interlined. 23. Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session. MS. Indecipherable letters deleted after ‘President.’. 24. For the delivery of the Lord President’s opinion, see p. 209 n. 2. 25. The Lord President is recorded as saying: ‘[I]n giving this my opinion, I shall state only such arguments as move me, and scarcely at all touch those which tend to support a contrary opinion’ (Anderson, Speeches, p. 1). 26. Charles Erskine (1680–1763), appointed Professor of Philosophy at University of Edinburgh 1700, Professor of Public Law 1707, admitted advocate 17 July 1711, M.P. Dumfriesshire 1722–41, appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland 1725, Lord Advocate 1737, M.P. Tain (Northern) Burghs 1741–42, appointed Lord of Session (and Lord Commissioner of Justiciary) as Lord Tinwald 23 Nov. 1744, appointed Lord Justice-Clerk 15 June 1748 (Fac. Adv., p. 66; College of Justice, pp. 513– 14; Sedgwick, i. 420, s.v. Charles Areskine; Oxford DNB, s.v. Charles Erskine, Lord Tinwald). 27. James Erskine, Lord Barjarg (later Lord Alva). 28. Lord Barjarg commenced his speech by rejecting the argument for Douglas that, by virtue of his filiation, the burden of proof was on Hamilton (Anderson, Speeches, p. 114), and went on to state that it was necessary to ‘proceed upon the most probable evidence’ (ibid., p. 123). He concluded that he could not find evidence that Douglas was the son of Lady Jane and therefore he found in favour of Hamilton (ibid., p. 129).

327

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 327

27/02/23 6:14 PM

20 may 1768 29. James Veitch, Lord Elliock. JB would remark that Lord Elliock always had ‘a kind of smile or grin’ (Journ. 17 Sept. 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 314, McGraw-Hill p. 295). 30. Lord Elliock found in favour of Hamilton. He commenced his speech by asserting: ‘The question in issue is not a point of law, but a fact, viz. Is the defender the son of Lady Jane Douglas, or, is he not?’ (Anderson, Speeches, p. 174). He went on to state that ‘when the conduct and behaviour of Lady Jane is considered, there can remain little doubt, indeed, there remains none with me, that there was no real pregnancy in the case’ (ibid., p. 182). And, after a minute examination of the evidence, he concluded: ‘I think it proved, that the defender neither is, nor possibly could be the son of Lady Jane Douglas’ (ibid., p. 226). 31. James Burnett, Lord Monboddo. 32. Lord Monboddo, who had formerly been one of the counsel for Douglas and had been much admired for his work in collecting evidence in France, and clearly had a very firm grasp of all the evidence in the cause, gave a lengthy and most compelling speech (extending to 124 pages) in favour of Douglas. He commenced by declaring boldly his ‘full conviction that the defender is the son of Lady Jane Douglas’ (Anderson, Speeches, p. 493). He went on to hold that the burden of proof was on the Hamilton side. ‘The pursuers . . . make it the foundation of their whole cause’, he said, ‘[that] Mr Douglas, tho’ he has been so long in possession of his birthright, was acknowledged by father and mother, and was habit and repute their son; yet is obliged to prove his birth . . . This, my Lords, I hold to be a most dangerous doctrine; and it is that which makes this truly a great cause . . . [I]t is this question of such general consequence, which makes this cause not only the cause of Mr Douglas, but of every person who hears me, I may say, of mankind . . . For if this were law, Who, of the age of this defender, can say, that he is sure of his birthright, or that he has a state, or belongs

to a family? But such a doctrine I hold to be as erroneous, as it is pernicious and subversive of the common rights of men. For the acknowledgement of parents, joined to the habit and repute, is the charter which every man has for his birthright, and which cannot be declared to be false, forged, or feigned, except upon evidence the clearest and most unexceptionable’ (ibid., pp. 496–97). His Lordship proceeded to give a masterly analysis of the evidence, and, among other points, made the devastating observation (also mentioned by Lord Strichen (ibid., p. 48)) that the idea that Lady Jane and Sir John, who were very short of funds, would have returned to Paris the year after young Archibald was born ‘to commit over again the same crime, and to burden themselves with the maintenance of another child, after the supposition of the first had succeeded so well with them, and when they could have given out, with the greatest probability, that this puny weak child, whom they had always represented as having but a small chance to live, was dead, is a story really incredible’ (ibid., pp. 553–54). In view of this consideration, and many others, Lord Monboddo (remarking that ‘I do feel very deeply for this young man the defender; and indeed it is a cause which excites the feelings of humanity more than any I have ever known’) concluded that ‘the tale told by the pursuers, is the most improbable that ever was told in any court of justice, supported by the slightest, and contradicted by the strongest evidence, both direct and circumstantial’ (ibid., pp. 616–17). 33. Lucan, Pharsalia, i. 128: ‘Victorious Caesar by the gods was crown’d, The vanquish’d party was by Cato own’d.’  Rowe, i. 49

34. MS. ‘certainly’ interlined. 35. JB presumably meant the bracket which appears at the end of the preceding

328

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 328

27/02/23 6:14 PM

20 may 1768 sentence to be placed at the end of this sentence. 36. MS. Letter deleted after ‘them’. Possibly ‘B’. 37. MS. Words after ‘determine’ deleted. The words appear to be ‘according to his con[science]’. 38. Lord Lyttelton did not make a speech when the House of Lords determined the appeal on 27 Feb. 1769. Although any member of the House of Lords could attend, and vote on, an appeal, ‘the decisions were usually left to the “Law Lords”, that is, to the Lord Chancellor and the judges of the supreme courts of England who held the rank of peers’ (Defence, p. 370). (In those days, the Law Lords did not include any judges appointed from the Scottish bench.) If the Law Lords were not in agreement, it was the custom of the peers to follow the one whom they most respected. Apart from the speeches by the Lord Chancellor (Sir Charles Pratt (1714–94), Baron Camden, later 1st Earl Camden, knighted 1761, appointed Lord Chief Justice of Common Pleas 1762, appointed Lord Chancellor 1766 (Oxford DNB)) and Lord Mansfield, who both spoke for Douglas (Douglas Cause, pp. 136–77), the only speeches were by the Duke of Newcastle, who spoke for Douglas, and Lord Sandwich (1718–92), Lord Gower (1721–1803) and the Duke of Bedford, who all spoke in favour of the Duke of Hamilton. The matter was put to the vote and decided in favour of Douglas, with five Lords dissenting (JHL 27 Feb. 1769, xxxii. 264; Douglas Cause, pp. 21–22; Carlyle, pp. 537–39; Earlier Years, p. 398). ‘Mansfield’s speech was an unvarnished appeal to the peers’ emotions – and to their aristocratic snobbery. Rather than discuss the detailed evidence . . . he dwelled instead on Lady Jane’s ancestry . . . His main argument was that a woman of Lady Jane’s high birth could not possibly be guilty of fraud . . . Mansfield was severely criticised for the part he played in enabling Archibald to inherit the Douglas fortune . . . Campbell [ii. 445] judged his speech as “very inferior

to his usual [juridical] efforts,” adding that he appealed to the lords’ feelings and prejudices rather than making an exposition of the principles of law involved in the case and a masterly analysis of the evidence’ (Poser, p. 346). 39. MS. ‘I dont know that’ interlined. The word before ‘dont’ has been deleted. The word appears to be ‘know’. 40. For filiation, see p. 282 n. 31. 41. MS. ‘called. Sir’. 42. Sir John Stewart (1687–1764) of Grandtully and Murthly (in Perthshire), Bt., father of Archibald Douglas (Comp. Bar. iv. 324). Ilay Campbell, counsel for Douglas, described Stewart’s character as ‘thoughtless, forgetful, and hurried away by the first idea that struck him’ (Memorial for Archibald Douglas and others, p. 221). ‘The evidence he gave at various times was self-contradictory, and even Douglas partisans admitted that it looked as if he had forged certain important letters [that is, letters purporting to be from the alleged man-midwife, Pier La Marre]’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 183 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 172 n. 5; see also Memorial for Archibald Douglas and others, pp. 535–40). Lord Monboddo, however, in his speech remarked: ‘Sir John, an old man of seventy-five, in a very bad state of health, was taken out of his bed, and examined for three days, in presence of your Lordships, upon a multitude of questions, prepared with great deliberation by the pursuers, but which had never been seen by Sir John, nor had he the common time for preparation and recollection which every witness is intitled to. In this situation, it could have been no matter of wonder, if, deposing to so many facts, at the distance of so many years, he had fallen into very great mistakes. But he has not fallen into so many as the pursuers would make your Lordships believe’ (Anderson, Speeches, p. 506). In the Essence, p. 54, JB wrote: ‘That Sir John never intended a forgery, must be evident to every impartial person; because, upon his examination before the court of session,

329

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 329

27/02/23 6:14 PM

20 may 1768 when he was asked with regard to these letters, he looked at them in his careless manner, and answered with that easy and unconcerned air which is the surest sign of conscious innocence.’ 43. MS. ‘No. My Lord!’. 44. Lady Jane Douglas. 45. In his speech in the House of Lords when giving his decision in the Douglas Cause, Lord Mansfield would explain the service he had done for Lady Jane (in 1750) as follows: ‘She came to me (I being Solicitor-General) in a very destitute condition, and yet her modesty would not suffer her to complain. The noble woman was every way visible, even under all the pressure of want and poverty. Her visage and appearance were more powerful advocates than her voice; and yet I was afraid to offer her relief, for fear of being constructed to proffer her an indignity. In this manner she came twice to my house, before I knew her real necessities; to relieve which now was my aim. I spoke to Mr. Pelham [Henry Pelham (1695–1754), Prime Minister (as First Lord of the Treasury) 1743–54] in her favour, told him of her situation with regard to her brother the Duke of Douglas, and of her present straits and difficulties. Mr. Pelham without delay laid the matter before the King; the Duke of Newcastle, being then at Hanover, was wrote to; he seconded the solicitations of his brother. His Majesty immediately granted her £300 per annum out of his privy purse’ (Douglas Cause, p. 144). 46. MS. ‘my father and’ interlined. 47. For JB’s involvement in political causes in respect of Forfarshire, see pp. 205–07 n. 2 and pp. 219–20 n. 2. 48. ‘James Craig’s plan for the New Town of Edinburgh was adopted by the Town Council in July 1767 and work on the erection of buildings started shortly afterwards. [JB] never moved to the New Town but seriously considered moving there in 1782 for the sake of the health of his wife and children [Journ. 19 Feb. 1782, Laird, p. 427]’ (BEJ, p. 95 n. 82). On 13 Aug. of

this year, JB’s brother John, who had been in Edinburgh since June, would write to the Rev. Edward Aitken in Newcastle that there ‘are vast improvements going on here in the building way, in every corner of the Town a number of neat Houses are rising in the English Taste’ (Yale MS. C 409). 49. For the Theatre Royal and JB’s Prologue at the opening of it, see pp. 213–14 n. 5. JB’s Prologue had appeared, as well as in Edinburgh publications, in London in Dec. issues of the Pub. Adv., Lond. Chron. and Lond. Mag. (Lit. Car. pp. 222, 241, 255). 50. ‘Though Ross was the son of a Writer to the Signet [Alexander Ross (d. 1753), W.S. (W.S. Register, p. 273)] and uncle to a laird, he was personally unknown in Edinburgh, and a powerful group combined to oppose him [as manager of the theatre]. [JB] did not know him personally, but took his side, and Ross, partly in gratitude, partly as a compliment, asked him to write the prologue for the opening of the theatre . . . on 9 December 1767. [JB] consequently had the satisfaction of hearing the first legal dramatic performance in Scotland introduced with rhymes of his own’ (Earlier Years, p. 346). 51. MS. Letter before ‘and’ deleted. Looks like ‘I’. 52. JB ‘treasured this compliment, and quoted it years afterwards in the memoir of himself [Boswell, ‘Memoires’, p. 326]’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 184 n. 3, McGraw-Hill p. 172 n. 8; and see Lit. Car. p. xxxvi). ‘Though there are no lines in [the Prologue] that come anywhere near the best in its model, [SJ]’s own “Prologue at the Opening of the Theatre in Drury Lane, 1747,” it is all firm, clear, emphatic verse . . . It duly appeared in most of the newspapers and magazines of the day, and probably received wider circulation in [JB]’s life-time than any other of his efforts in verse’ (Earlier Years, p. 346). 53. ‘[JB] was apparently mistaken here. Mansfield assured Choiseul, the French Minister of War and Foreign Affairs, “that the English Ministry were too weak and the

330

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 330

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 may 1768 nation too wise to support them in entering on a war for the sake of Corsica” (Autobiography of Augustus Henry, third Duke of Grafton, ed. Sir William Anson, 1898, p. 204)’

(Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 184 n. 4, McGraw-Hill p. 172 n. 9). MS. ‘Convinced him . . . Corsica’ written vertically in the right-hand margin.

Saturday 21 May I dined at Lord Eglintoune’s.1 He &2 I & Jo. Ross Mckye,3 very well. Evening Lord Mountstuart’s [ — ] much serious & open conversation [ — ] Our friendship quite renewd.4 1. Lord Eglinton’s London residence was in Queen Street, Mayfair (Earlier Years, p. 47). 2. MS. ‘& &’. 3. John Ross Mackie (1707–97), of Palgowan, Kirkcudbright, advocate (admitted 6 Jan. 1731), M.P. for Linlithgow Burghs 1742–47 and for Kirkcudbright Stewartry 1747–68, Treasurer of the Ordnance 1763– 80, later Receiver General of Stamp Duties 1780–94 (Fac. Adv., p. 137; Sedgwick, ii. 237). 4. JB and Lord Mountstuart had quarrelled while travelling round Italy together in 1765 during JB’s tour of the Continent (Earlier Years, pp. 226–27, 232–33; and see pp. 263–64 n. 2 above). And they had particularly fallen out when JB had written to Mountstuart ‘from Genoa asking him for letters of recommendation in Paris. Dr. John Pringle, to whom Lord Auchinleck had confided his worries, had begged Mountstuart to try to get [JB] to come home with no further delay. Mountstuart had written accordingly, not actually refusing the letters, but not sending them, and pressing urgently for [JB]’s return. [JB], in a fury at what he considered officious meddling, had sent him one of the very few rude letters

of his that we know of. He announced his complete independence, recklessly dispelling the cherished dream of Stuart patronage: “I shall never again ask the smallest favour of you”’ (Earlier Years, p. 283). JB’s letter is not reported, but Pringle gave a summary of it in a letter to JB dated 28 Jan. 1766 (ibid., p. 528; for the letter, see Yale MS. C 2294). Pringle told JB, when they met after JB’s return to London, that he was ‘wrong’ and that his conduct had been ‘outrageous’ (Mem. 14 Feb. 1766, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 299, McGraw-Hill p. 283). JB called on Mountstuart, at his ‘elegant house’, and recorded the conversation: ‘He appeared, and was reserved. You said you was sorry he had been offended, but could not see you was wrong. Asked him freely not to be angry any more . . . [He finally said,] “I don’t care sixpence about it.”’ JB considered this a ‘poor’ response (Mem. 15 Feb. 1766, Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 299, McGraw-Hill pp. 283–84). JB’s printed thesis, which he was obliged to submit (in Latin) in July 1766 as part of the process for seeking admission to the Faculty of Advocates (see Introduction, p. 3), was dedicated to Mountstuart (see p. 56 n. 40 above; and LPJB 1, p. xlv and n. 44).

Sunday 22 May Went in the morning to Lord Mount[stuart’]s — saw his son[.]1 [S]uppos’d him Jo. Earl of Bute.2 I called at several places, & dined at Mr. Bosville’s quite easy & comfortable.3 Then drove about & called at doors. Between 8 & nine at4 night went to Lord Mansfield’s being his levee. Found him alone; drank a dish of 331

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 331

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 may 1768 tea with him. He was quite easy with me. Told me the Anglesea Cause was clearly shewn to be an imposition by authentick papers.5 The week before[,] he had had a cause of a horse before him. I pleaded Smith against6 Steel.7 He said there was no time fixed for redhibition8 but a jury woud determine just by circumstances & to be sure a man’s having kept a horse two months without offering him back — & working him too [ — ] was virtually passing from his objection.9 In a little My Lord Oxford came.10 Then Lord M. assumed all the state of a Chief Justice. Went to the opposite side of the room, & sat by My Lord & kept me down as I tried to speak. I was etourdi11 enough to talk of Wilkes, which Lord M. did not relish. When Lord Ox[ford] went Lord M. became quite easy again. Came close to me & resumed his urbanity. I spoke again of the D. Cause but found I had exhausted it. He spoke (or I did it first[,] I know not which) of Dempster’s plea of privilege. Said it was an absurd decision.12 I defended it. Come said he — how, are they not to judge only by the statute & Common law of Scotland. Well. Had the Scotch Parliament any privilege? No.13 How then are they to judge of the priv[ilege] of a British Parl[iament] — Where do they find it? B Why in Blackstone14 — M You may as well say that candle. He is no rule to them — (I then harangued I forget how.) M Keep to the point [ — ] answer me a plain question. Have they any other rule but stat[ute] & com[mon] law? B No. M Well then they had nothing to do with such a plea — They might as well have pleaded a statute of Paoli of Corsica. They should have said we know nothing of this & so proceeded — or adjourned till they took advice. They had very near set the 2 houses of parl[iament] by the ears, & I can tell you the Speaker had thoughts of moving to have [’]em brought up to answer for what they had done. And what was most extraordinary, they not only decided, but they decided wrong, &15 I wonder Lord Just[ice] Clerk who heard the debates in Parl[iament] on that subject, could go so far wrong.16 They were to proceed, & let the Prosecutor be answerable for what he did as Mr. D[empste]r. might call him before the H. of17 C — the proper judges of privilege. (I18 asked him if it was adviseable for a Scotch Council to come to the Engl[ish] bar. No said he. He has not the education for it. A19 man of very extraordinary parts may perhaps succeed.20) (I had told him at my first visit that nothing would tempt me from being Laird of Auchinleck21 &c & he said a very22 laudable [ — ] or a very good [ — ] prejudice.) He advised to read Blackstone & also Burrows reports.23 He said he decided about 700 causes a year. 1. Mountstuart’s eldest son (then a baby), Hon. John Stuart (1767–94), later M.P. for Cardiff Boroughs 1790–94, styled Viscount Mountstuart 1792 until death (Scots Peer. ii. 308; Thorne, v. 309). In Nov. 1766, Mountstuart had married, as his first wife, the wealthy Charlotte Hickman-Windsor (1746–1800), daughter of Herbert Hickman-Windsor (1707–58), 2nd Viscount Windsor of Blackcastle (Irish

peerage), and Alice Clavering (1705–76) (Scots Peer. iv. 306; Comp. Peer. XII. ii. 805–06; Burke’s Peerage, 107th ed., i. 608). At Dumfries House, in Oct. 1792, John Stuart (seen here by JB as an infant) would marry Lady Elizabeth MacDowall-Crichton (1772–97), daughter of JB’s Ayrshire neighbours, the Earl and Countess of Dumfries. But he died in Jan. 1794 as the result of a fall from his horse, and thus did not

332

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 332

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 may 1768 live to become ‘Jo[hn] Earl of Bute’ (Scots Peer. ii. 308). 2. MS. ‘Went in morning . . . Bute’ interlined. 3. That is, at Godfrey Bosville’s house. 4. MS. ‘at’ interlined. 5. When Richard Annesley (c. 1691–1761), 6th Earl of Anglesey (and 7th Viscount Valentia), died in 1761, his son and heir, Arthur (1744–1816), claimed the titles, honours and dignities of Earl of Anglesey and Baron of Newport Pagnell, but when his legitimacy was disputed the matter was referred to the House of Lords Committees for Privileges. On 22 Apr. 1771, the Committee would resolve that the claimant had no right to the titles, honours and dignities claimed (JHL 22 Apr. 1771, xxxiii. 172–73; Comp. Peer. i. 136–38). 6. MS. ‘against’ is written in an abbreviated form resembling a ‘g’ with a diagonal stroke through it. 7. The case of John Smith v. Archibald Steel (for which, see pp. 147–48 n. 1). Steel had reclaimed to the Inner House against Lord Kennet’s interlocutor of 9 Feb. JB’s reclaiming petition of 5 Mar. 1768 begins by stating that Steel ‘is now to submit to your Lordships consideration a question of perhaps as general importance as any that has occurred of a long time before this Supreme Court’ (MS. reclaiming petition, extending to fifty-seven pages in the handwriting of a clerk, page 1 (NRS CS233/S/3/6); see also LPJB 1, p. 132 n. 465). On 9 July 1768, the Inner House would pronounce an interlocutor adhering to Lord Kennet’s interlocutor of 9 Feb. 8. MS. ‘rehhibition’. 9. Smith’s case was based on the remedy of redhibition (‘a remedy available to cancel a sale in the event of delivery of defective goods’ (LPJB 1, p. 128 n. 453)). ‘Erskine’s Principles, Book 3, Title 3, §4 (p. 292) indicated that redhibition might be available if the matter were pursued “recently” (i.e. soon after the defective goods were delivered). Erskine’s Institute,

Book 3, Title 3, §10 (vol. 2, p. 449), states: “This action [actio redhibitoria] is, by our usage, limited to the special case where the buyer, in a few days after the goods have been delivered to him, offers them back to the seller; for otherwise it is presumed, from the buyer’s silence, either that he hath passed from all objections to the sale, or that the insufficiency has happened after the goods came to his possession.” However, given that Erskine’s Institute was not published until 1773, Erskine’s published views at the time when [JB] represented Steel were as set out in the Principles’ (ibid.). On 19 July, JB would present a further reclaiming petition for Steel (Signet Library 590:5), extending to fourteen printed pages and transcribed in LPJB 1, pp. 129–40. On page 4, JB stated: ‘The petitioner [Steel] is advised, that if it shall appear, that the distemper which affected the horse at the time when Mr Smith offered him back, was not the same distemper with that which affected him some time before the sale, and from which he was to all appearance recovered, then no recourse can be had against the petitioner. That this was the case, is, in the petitioner’s humble apprehension, very strongly proved. For it appears, that [prior to the sale of the horse], his only complaint was a stiffness in his neck; whereas, when offered back by Mr Smith, his complaint was a lameness in one of his legs’ (LPJB 1, p. 133). On page 8, JB went on to address the redhibition point as follows: ‘Supposing, however, that your Lordships should be of opinion, that the distemper which affected the horse at the periods before he was sold, and at the time he was offered back, were truly one and the same distemper, it is humbly apprehended, that as Mr Smith retained the horse for no less than three months, without challenging any defect, he was thereby in a culpable mora, and cannot now be allowed to restore the horse: And as this resolves into the determination of a point of very general importance, the petitioner hopes it will not be unworthy of the attention of the court’ (LPJB 1, p. 135). JB

333

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 333

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 may 1768 then reviewed the legal authorities on the matter, including Erskine’s Principles, Book 3, Title 3, §4, and submitted (on page 9 of the reclaiming petition): ‘Here, then, your Lordships have the express authority of all our lawyers, that no action for restitution is competent, unless it is brought recently after the insufficiency is discovered’ (LPJB 1, p. 136). However, on 4 Aug. their Lordships would pronounce an interlocutor adhering to their former interlocutor and refusing the desire of the reclaiming petition (NRS CS233/S/3/6; LPJB 1, p. 140). 10. Edward Harley (1726–90), 4th Earl of Oxford, M.A. (Oxford, 1747), M.P. Herefordshire 1747–55, Lord of the Bedchamber to George III 1760–90 (Sedgwick, ii. 112; Alum. Oxon. ii. 609). 11. That is, étourdi (thoughtless or giddy (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 185 n. 4, McGraw-Hill p. 173 n. 4)). 12. When seeking re-election as M.P. for the Perth Burghs in the 1768 general election, JB’s friend George Dempster had been charged with bribery and corruption, or attempted bribery and corruption, in respect of his alleged actions to ensure that the magistrates and town councillors of the burgh of Cupar (one of the burghs in the district of burghs making up the constituency of Perth Burghs) would give him a majority of the votes in the election of the delegate chosen by that burgh for the purpose of the meeting with the delegates of the other burghs of which the constituency was comprised in order to elect a Member of Parliament for the constituency (Maclaurin, pp. 382–89). A private prosecution had been commenced against Dempster in the High Court of Justiciary. On 26 Nov. 1767, a petition was presented to the High Court of Justiciary on behalf of Dempster pleading parliamentary privilege, and stating that Dempster considered ‘any violation of the freedom of the person of a member of parliament, to be a gross and daring attack against the fundamental and vital privileges of the house; and although prosecutions, perhaps, for criminal offences of certain

kinds, may be brought against members of parliament, yet it is essential to the very existence of parliament, that every member be at liberty to attend his duty, and that no restraint be laid on his person, unless the safety of the state, or of individuals, necessarily require it’ (ibid., pp. 389–90). The prosecutors resisted this plea, and there was an extensive debate on the matter. During the debate, Dempster’s counsel mentioned (ibid., p. 404), among other things, that the Criminal Procedure Act 1701 (an Act of the Scottish Parliament, RPS 1700/10/234; APS x 272, c. 6) provided: ‘[N]o member of parliament attending shall be imprisoned or confined upon any account whatsoever during a session of parliament without a warrant of parliament, reserving to the high constable and marischal their privileges and jurisdiction in the time of parliament as formerly; and also providing that, if any member shall happen to commit a capital crime or if there be a manifest hazard of the peace, any magistrate may arrest for securing of the person or the peace and deliver the person to the custody of the high constable for the parliament’s cognition at the next sederunt.’ On 7 Dec. 1767, the judges considering Dempster’s petition in the High Court of Justiciary pronounced the following interlocutor, containing the decision which Lord Mansfield considered ‘absurd’: ‘Find, That this court can issue no warrant for apprehending the person of George Dempster, Esq; member of parliament, nor for compelling him to find bail to appear, and stand trial upon the criminal letters mentioned in the said petition, during the sitting of parliament; and therefore declare they will adjourn the diet of the said criminal letters from time to time during the continuance of said privilege’ (ibid., pp. 416–17). In their deliberations, the judges did not refer to any legal authority in support of their decision. The prosecution appealed to the House of Lords, who gave the following judgment on 7 Mar. 1768: ‘Upon report from the Lords committees, to whom it was referred to consider . . . it is

334

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 334

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 may 1768 ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in parliament assembled, That the petitioners do, by themselves or agents, attend the court of justiciary on Monday next, . . . to reconsider whether they were authorised by the common or statute law of the land to take cognisance of the subject-matter, and to make such declaration’ (ibid., pp. 417–18). When the matter came before the High Court of Justiciary on 18 Mar., Dempster (who had withdrawn his candidacy for the Perth Burghs in the general election, thus allowing his substitute – his friend William Pulteney (1729–1805) – to win the seat) announced that he no longer desired to rest upon his defence of privilege. The judges thereupon pronounced the following interlocutor: ‘Having considered their interlocutor of the 7th of December last, with the judgement of the House of Peers of the 7th of March current, and what is before represented; in respect the defender does not insist on his plea of privilege, as sustained by said interlocutor, find there is no place in this case to reconsider the ground of the said interlocutor; but in respect of the said judgement of the House of Peers, they declare, That the said interlocutor shall be no precedent to any future case of the like nature, and that the matter shall lie open to the consideration of the court upon any such future case, in the same manner as if the said interlocutor had not passed’ (ibid., p. 418). Dempster then pled not guilty to the charges, and after hearing a debate on the competency and relevancy of the charges the court ordered that written Informations be lodged on the matter (ibid., pp. 418–19). Finally, on 1 Aug., the court would dismiss the case on the basis that the charges were considered too vague and uncertain to be put before a jury (ibid., pp. 465–67). ‘The allegation of bribery was probably true. In 1774 the Perth Burghs were said to be “open, venal, and expensive” (Namier and Brooke i. 509). Furthermore, Dempster’s advocate, Henry Dundas, did not attempt to deny the charges, arguing instead that bribery was no crime in

Common Law, and defending it as a typical method of canvassing and solicitation ([Yale MS.] Lg 11:4, p. 7, “Information for George Dempster . . . against Robert Geddie”, June 2, 1768)’ (Corr. 5, p. 237 n. 3). Dempster would ultimately regain his seat for Perth Burghs at the by-election in 1769 (Namier and Brooke, i. 509). It was said that he had spent over £10,000 (an enormous sum in those days) on the campaign and the litigation (Namier and Brooke, ii. 315). 13. JB was incorrect on this point, for, as stated in n. 12 above, the Criminal Procedure Act 1701 recognized parliamentary privilege with regard to the old Parliament of Scotland. 14. Sir William Blackstone (1723–80), Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765– 69). The Commentaries ‘would become the most celebrated, widely circulated, and influential law book ever published in the English language’ (Oxford DNB). A copy of this work is listed in JB’s ‘Handlist’ (c. 1771) of the books in his Edinburgh townhouse in James’s Court (Boswell’s Books, #328, p. 121). In the second edition of the Commentaries, Vol. 1 (1766–67), the subject of parliamentary privilege in general is addressed in Book I, Ch. 2, §III (pp. 163–67). 15. MS. ‘wrong. &’. 16. Thomas Miller of Barskimming. On 24 Nov. 1763, after debates that day and the preceding day, the House of Commons had resolved that parliamentary privilege did not extend to seditious libel (JHC 1761–66, xxix. 674–75). At that time, Miller was Lord Advocate and M.P. for the Dumfries Burghs. 17. MS. ‘of of’. 18. MS. An opening bracket before ‘I’, but no closing bracket later. A closing bracket has been added after ‘succeed’. 19. MS. ‘Many’ before ‘A’ deleted. 20. In 1786, after almost twenty years at the Scottish Bar with a good practice, JB would decide to try his fortune at the English Bar, thinking that he might do better in

335

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 335

27/02/23 6:14 PM

22 may 1768 ‘a wider sphere’. He was called to the English Bar on 13 Feb. 1786 at the Inner Temple, where he had been entered, many years before, on 19 Nov. 1761 (Earlier Years, p. 74; Later Years, p. 318; Journ. 13 Feb. 1786, Experiment, p. 36; Oxford DNB). ‘However, although he occasionally got work as a barrister in England, and was appointed Recorder of Carlisle in 1787, he was never able to build up a regular, steady practice. On the other hand, he continued to be engaged occasionally in Scottish appeals to the House of Lords. This is an indication of the esteem in which he was still held in certain legal circles in his native country’ (LPJB 1, p. lv). A Scottish advocate who made a very successful move to the English Bar was Alexander Wedderburn (1733–

1805), who was admitted advocate on 2 July 1754 and was called to the English Bar on 12 May 1763, rising to Solicitor-General in 1771, Attorney-General in 1778, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (as Lord Loughborough) in 1780, and Lord Chancellor from 1793 to 1801, and created 1st Earl of Rosslyn in 1801 (Fac. Adv., p. 217). 21. JB would become 9th Laird of Auchinleck when his father died on 30 Aug. 1782 (Journ. 29 Aug. 1782, Laird, p. 477 and n. 8). 22. MS. ‘very’ interlined. 23. Sir James Burrow, Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Court of King’s Bench, since the death of Lord Raymond (since the time of Lord Mansfield’s coming to preside in it), London, 1766–80.

Tuesday 7 June1 Soon after this, he2 supped at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand3 with a Company whom I collected to meet him. There were Mr.4 Percy,5 the Reverend Dr.6 Douglas,7 Mr. Langton8 Dr. Robertson the Historian9 Dr. Hugh Blair and Mr. Thomas Davies who wished much to be introduced to these eminent Scotch Literati; but on the present occasion he had very little opportunity of hearing them talk for with much10 prudence for which Johnson afterwards found fault with them they hardly opened their lips, and that only to say something which they were certain would not expose them to animadversion11 such was their anxiety for their fame when in the presence of Johnson, who12 was this evening in remarkable vigour of mind and eager to exert himself in conversation which he did with great readiness and fluency, but I am sorry to find that I have preserved but little13 of what passed. He allowed high praise to Thomson as a Poet14 but when a gentleman15 said he was16 a very good man our Moralist contested this with great warmth, accusing him of gross sensuality and licentiousness of manners.17 He was vehement against old Dr. Mounsey of Chelsea College as ‘a fellow who swore and talked bawdy.’18 ‘I have been often in his company,’ said Dr. Percy ‘and never heard him swear or talk bawdy.’ Mr. Davies who sat next to Dr. Percy having after this had some conversation aside with him made a discovery which in his zeal to please19 Dr. Johnson, he eagerly proclaimed aloud from the foot of the table ‘O Sir I have found out a very good reason why Dr. Percy never heard Mounsey swear or talk bawdy for he tells me he never saw him but at the Duke of Northumberland’s table.’20 — ‘And so Sir’ (said Johnson loudly to Dr. Percy) ‘you would shield this man from the charge of21 talking bawdy because he did not do so22 at the Duke of Northumberland’s table. You23 might as well tell us that 336

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 336

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7 june 1768 you had24 seen him hold up his hand at the Old Bailey and he neither swore nor talked bawdy; or that you had25 seen him in the cart at Tyburn26 and he neither swore nor talked bawdy. And is it thus, Sir, that you presume to contradict27 what I have related?’ Dr. Johnson’s reprimand28 was uttered in such a manner that Dr. Percy was much hurt29 and soon30 left the company of which Johnson did not take any notice.31 Swift having been mentioned Johnson as usual treated him with little respect as an Authour.32 Some of us endeavoured to support the Dean of St. Patrick’s by various arguments. One in particular33 praised his Conduct of the Allies.34 Johnson. ‘Sir his Conduct of the Allies is a performance of very little ability.’ ‘I don’t know Sir’ said the gentleman. ‘It has strong facts.’35 Johnson. ‘Why yes Sir: but what is that to the merit of the composition? In the Sessions Paper of the Old Bailey there are strong facts. Housebreaking is a strong fact, Robbery is a strong fact, and Murder is a mighty strong fact, but is great praise due to the historian of those strong facts? Swift36 has told what he had to tell distinctly enough but that is all. He had to count ten, and he has counted it right.’ — Then recollecting that Mr. Davies, by acting as an informer, had been the occasion of his talking somewhat too harshly to his friend Dr. Percy,37 he took an opportunity to give him a hit adding38 with a preparatory laugh. ‘Tom39 Davies might have written the Conduct of the Allies.’ Poor Tom being thus suddenly dragged into ludicrous40 notice, in presence of the Scottish Doctors to whom he was ambitious of appearing to advantage was sadly41 mortified.42 When I called upon Dr. Johnson next morning I found him highly satisfied with his colloquial prowess the preceeding evening. ‘Well,’ said he ‘we had good talk.’ Boswell. ‘Yes Sir, you tossed and gored several persons.’ 1. This entry is based on passages in Life which must have been taken from JB’s journal but only survive in Life. The text reflects what is presumed to be the first draft as shown in Life MS ii. 32–34, under deletion of some passages which could only have been written after 1768. The date of the entry is identified from an entry in Thomas Percy’s Journal (held in the British Museum) (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 186 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 175 n. 6). 2. SJ. 3. ‘This famous tavern extended from Arundel-street eastward to Milford-lane, in the rear of the south side of the Strand’ (Timbs, ii. 179). In 1720, it was described as ‘a large and curious House with good Rooms and other Conveniences fit for Entertainment’ (Strype, II. 4. 117).

4. Editorial amendment: ‘Dr.’ deleted and replaced by ‘Mr.’, as Percy did not obtain his first D.D. until 1770. 5. Thomas Percy (1729–1811), B.A. (Oxford, 1750), M.A. (Oxford, 1753), ordained deacon 1751 and priest 1753, shortly thereafter appointed vicar of Easton Maudit, Northamptonshire, appointed rector of Wilby, Northamptonshire, 1756, chaplain and secretary to Lord Northumberland (for whom, see n. 20 below) 1765, later chaplain-in-ordinary to George III (1769), D.D. (Cambridge, 1770; Oxford, 1793), Dean of Carlisle 1778, Bishop of Dromore (in County Down, Ireland) 1782 (Oxford DNB). Percy is best remembered for his anthology, The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765). For JB’s correspondence with Percy, see Corr. 3. Editorial

337

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 337

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7 june 1768 amendment: ‘now Bishop of Dromore’ deleted, as Percy did not become Bishop of Dromore until 1782. 6. MS. ‘the Reverend’ before ‘Dr.’ later deleted. 7. John Douglas (1721–1807), a Scotsman, studied at St. Mary Hall, Oxford, graduating B.A. (1740) and M.A. (1743), ordained deacon 1743, appointed chaplain to the 3rd Regt. of Foot Guards 1744, ordained priest 1747, becoming curate of Tilehurst, near Reading, and also of Duns Tew, Oxfordshire, came under the patronage of William Pulteney (1684–1764), 1st Earl of Bath, for whom he acted as chaplain and secretary and who presented him to the free chapel of Eaton Constantine and to the donative of Uppington, Shropshire, appointed vicar of High Ercall, Shropshire, 1750, D.D. (Oxford, 1758), rector of St. Augustine with St. Faith, Watling Street, London, 1761, presented by Lord Bath to the perpetual curacy of Kenley, Shropshire, appointed canon at Windsor 1762, later canon at St. Paul’s 1776, Bishop of Carlisle 1787, Dean of Windsor 1788, Bishop of Salisbury 1791. As well as pursuing a successful career as a clergyman, he earned ‘a reputation as a critic and controversialist’, writing Milton No Plagiary (1750–51 and 1754), The Critereon (1752, 1754 and 1757), An Apology for the Clergy (1755), editing the State Letters and Diary of the 2nd Earl of Clarendon (1763), assisting Captain James Cook in the editing of his Voyage Towards the South Pole (1777), and writing an introduction to Cook’s last journals, Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (1784), which of all Douglas’s writings ‘had perhaps the greatest impact, drawing wide European and American attention to the resources of the Pacific north-west’ (Oxford DNB). For JB’s correspondence with Douglas, see Corr. 3. Editorial amendment: ‘now bishop of Carlisle’ deleted, as Douglas did not become Bishop of Carlisle until 1787. 8. Bennet Langton (c. 1736–1801), studied at Trinity College, Oxford (matriculated 7 July 1757), M.A. (1765), later

appointed Professor of Ancient Literature at the Royal Academy 1788, D.C.L. (Oxford, 1790). ‘As a young man he was so interested by The Rambler (1750–52) that he obtained an introduction to [SJ], who at once took a liking to him . . . Langton was very tall and thin; his gentle and amiable nature made him universally popular’ (Oxford DNB). He would give JB much assistance with materials for the Life. For JB’s correspondence with him, see Corr. 3. 9. William Robertson. 10. MS. Alternative version: ‘an extreme of’; final version: ‘an excess of’. 11. MS. Alternative version: ‘contradiction’; final version: ‘the sword of Goliath’. 12. MS. ‘, who’ later deleted and replaced by ‘. He’. 13. MS. ‘little’ later deleted and replaced by ‘a small part’. 14. James Thomson (1700–48), Scottish poet, best remembered for his poem The Seasons (revised edition published 1744) and for the words to the song ‘Rule Britannia’ in his play Alfred: A Masque (first performed 1740) (Oxford DNB). 15. MS. ‘gentleman’ later deleted and replaced by ‘one of the company’. 16. MS. Later isolated addition: ‘also’. 17. Thomson ‘gormandized and drank heavily; he carried himself awkwardly, . . . was negligent in his dress, and sweated copiously’ (Oxford DNB). SJ described him as being ‘of a stature above the middle size . . . , of a dull countenance, and a gross, unanimated, uninviting appearance’ (LEP, p. 318). Editorial amendment: ‘I was very much affraid . . . has inserted in his life’ deleted, as SJ’s LEP was not published until 1779–81. 18. Messenger Monsey (c. 1694–1788), B.A. (Cambridge, 1714), physician to Chelsea Hospital (a post he held until his death) (Oxford DNB). It was said that his humour was ‘sometimes gross, and often inelegant’, and his wit was not a ‘keen, shining, well-tempered weapon’, but ‘rather the irresistible massy sabre of a Russian

338

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 338

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7 june 1768 Corsair, which, at the same time that it cuts down by the sharpness of its edge, demolishes by the weight of the blow’ (Life and Eccentricities of the Late Dr Monsey FRS, 1804, p. 106). 19. MS. Alternative version: ‘flatter’; final version: ‘pay court to’. 20. Hugh Percy (formerly Smithson) (c. 1714–86), 2nd Earl and 1st Duke of Northumberland, M.P. Middlesex 1740–50, Lord of the Bedchamber to George II and George III (1753–63), Knight of the Garter 1757, member of the Privy Council 1762, Viceroy of Ireland (as Lord Lieutenant) 1763–65, Vice-Admiral of North America 1764, created Earl Percy and Duke of Northumberland 1766, later created Lord Loraine, Baron of Alnwick, 1784 (Comp. Peer. ix. 43–44). 21. MS. Later isolated addition: ‘swearing and’. 22. MS. Alternative version: ‘it’; final version: ‘so’. 23. MS. Later isolated addition before ‘You’: ‘Sir’. 24. MS. Alternative version: ‘have’; final version: ‘had’. 25. MS. Alternative version: ‘have’; final version: ‘had’. 26. For Tyburn, see p. 264 n. 4. 27. MS. Alternative version: ‘attempt a contradiction’; final version: ‘contravert’. 28. MS. ‘reprimand’ later deleted and replaced by ‘animadversion’. 29. MS. ‘was much hurt’ later deleted and replaced by ‘seemed to be displeased’. 30. MS. Later isolated addition: ‘afterwards’.

31. MS. Alternative version: ‘took no notice at the time’; final version: ‘did not at that time take any notice’. 32. Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), D.D. (Trinity College, Dublin, 1702), the famous author, primarily remembered for Gulliver’s Travels (1726). He was appointed Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, in 1713 (Oxford DNB). 33. Dr. Douglas (Life ii. 65). 34. The Conduct of the Allies (a pamphlet published in 1711 during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14)) ‘attacks the whigs for prolonging a war ruinously expensive for the nation but profitable to a monied clique driven by self-interest at the cost of the landed interest’ (Oxford DNB). 35. MS. ‘“I don’t know Sir” said the gentleman. “It has strong facts.”’ later deleted and replaced by ‘“surely Sir,” said Dr. Douglas, “you must allow it has strong facts.”’ 36. MS. Later isolated addition before ‘Swift’: ‘No Sir’. 37. MS. Later isolated addition: ‘for which probably when the first ebulition was over he felt some compunction’. 38. MS. ‘adding’ later deleted and replaced by ‘so added’. 39. MS. Later isolated addition before ‘Tom’: ‘Why Sir’. 40. MS. Alternative version: ‘ridiculous’; final version: ‘ludicrous’. 41. MS. ‘sadly’ later deleted and replaced by ‘grievously’. 42. Editorial amendment: ‘Nor did his punishment . . . Conduct of the Allies’ deleted, as this passage refers to later events.

339

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 339

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 340

27/02/23 6:14 PM

1769

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 341

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 342

27/02/23 6:14 PM

25 april 1769 [JB left London on 9 June 17681 and returned to Edinburgh for the summer session of the Court of Session (12 June to 11 August). He was kept very busy with legal work, and his fees for the session amounted to fifty-eight guineas.2 During the court vacation, JB, as usual, stayed at Auchinleck. In mid-August he paid a call on his cousins the Montgomeries of Lainshaw,3 whom he found entertaining relatives of theirs from Ireland, Charles Boyd (a wealthy attorney in Dublin),4 his wife5 and their daughter, Mary Ann.6 The visitors were accompanied by Margaret Montgomerie’s first cousin Mrs. Jane Boyd,7 who was aunt of Mary Ann and wife of Charles Boyd’s brother Hugh.8 JB was enraptured by Mary Ann, and on being invited to visit her and her family in Ireland, promised to come in March the following year (when the Court of Session rose at the end of the winter session). Writing to WJT, JB extolled Mary Ann’s virtues (referring to her as ‘La belle Irlandaise’): I have now seen the finest creature that ever was formed . . . Figure to yourself Temple a young Lady just sixteen, formed like a grecian nymph with the sweetest countenance full of sensibility, accomplished with a Dublin education, allways half the year in the north of Ireland, her father a Counsellor at law with an estate of £1000 a year and above £10000 in ready money. Her mother a sensible wellbred woman. She the darling of her parents & no other child but her sister9 . . . From morning to night I admired the charming Mary Anne. Upon my honour, I never was so much in love . . . I was allowed to walk a great deal with Miss. I repeated my fervent passion to her, again & again. She was pleased, and I could swear that her little heart beat. I carved the first letter of her name on a tree. I cut off a lock of her hair . . . I am fixed beyond a possibility of doubt as to her. Believe me she is like a part of my very soul . . . This is the most agreable passion I ever felt. Sixteen innocence and gayety make me quite a Sicilian Swain.10 During the winter session of the Court of Session (from 12 November 1768 to 11 March 1769) JB’s fees amounted to 123 guineas.11 At the end of the session, JB and his father set off for Auchinleck, but before reaching there spent six days visiting the Montgomeries of Lainshaw. It was there agreed that JB’s cousins would accompany him to Ireland.12 JB and his father arrived at Auchinleck on 23 March.13 For some reason, perhaps illness on the part of the Montgomeries (JB reported to JJ that he and his father had found them ‘much better than we expected’14), the jaunt was put off to late April; and, in the event, the only cousin to go with JB would be Margaret Montgomerie. JB resumed his journal on the day they departed.15]

Tuesday 25 April Miss Montgomery & I set out from Auchinleck.16 My father was so averse to my irish expedition, that she had not resolution to agree to accompany me. 343

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 343

27/02/23 6:14 PM

25 april 1769 Dr. Johnston17 took leave of me, & seemed most anxious for my safe return. My father walked out, & I did not take leave of him. It was a delightful day. We were calm & social. We came to Treesbank at four. Mr. Campbell18 had been at a burial. So dinner was not begun. We were cordially entertained, & very merry here. 1. Earlier Years, p. 386. 2. Consultation Book; LPJB 2, pp. 400–02. 3. For whom, see pp. 82–83 n. 5. 4. Charles Boyd (d. 1776) of Killaghy, County Down (Corr. 7, p. 99; To JJ, 21 Sept. 1768, Corr. 1, p. 243), attorney in the Court of Common Pleas (Dublin Dir. 1768, p. 94). 5. Catherine (Caldwell) (d. 1781) (Corr. 7, p. 180, Appendix A, p. 273). 6. Mary Ann Boyd (b. c. 1752), elder of the two daughters of Charles Boyd and Catherine (Caldwell) Boyd. 7. Jane (Laing) Boyd (d. 1777) of Donaghadee, County Down (Corr. 7, p. 99, Appendix A, p. 273). 8. For Hugh Boyd, see p. 352 n. 4. 9. Alicia Boyd (fl. c. 1754–96), younger daughter of Charles Boyd and Catherine (Caldwell) Boyd. She is named in the wills of her father, mother and aunt, Alicia Caldwell (d. c. 1793) (Findmypast, Betham Genealogical Abstracts). According to JB’s account to JJ of Mary Ann Boyd’s financial prospects, ‘she is sure of having £10,000 besides the prospect of the best share of £1000 a year, for Mr. Boyd has but two daughters, and She is the favourite’ (21 Sept. 1768, Corr. 1, p. 243). Her cousin, Jane Charlotte (Boyd) McMinn (for whom see p. 352 n. 6, below), writing to JB on 14 July 1789 (Yale MS. C 1866, a letter

of condolence in response to a letter from JB announcing his wife’s death) would say of Alicia: ‘Miss Boyd still continues her cruelty to your Sex, & I really think from the Number of Lovers she rejects, she never will change her situation.’ 10. To WJT, 24 Aug. 1768, Corr. 6, pp. 241–42. 11. Consultation Book; LPJB 2, pp. 403–07. 12. To JJ, 31 Mar. 1769, Corr. 1, p. 249. 13. Lt. John Boswell’s Journals (Yale MS. C 404.3), 23 Mar. 1769. 14. To JJ, 31 Mar. 1769, Corr. 1, p. 249. 15. This journal, dated 25 Apr. to 7 May 1769 and designated ‘J 17’ in the Yale editors’ cataloguing system, occupies a ‘[q]uarto notebook with leather spine and marbled paper board covers, 33 pages and an unpaged title-leaf (i.e. 17 leaves), numbered 1–9, 8–25, 24–25, 25–27, 30, but continuous and complete’ (Catalogue, i. 10). The title-leaf reads: ‘Journal of the first part of my Jaunt to Ireland in 1769 with Miss Peggie Montgomerie. I regret that I ceased, when it would have been most interesting.’ 16. Margaret Montgomerie had been at Auchinleck for a visit lasting three weeks (Earlier Years, p. 401; Lt. John Boswell’s Journals (Yale MS. C 404.3), 4, 25 Apr. 1769). 17. Daniel Johnston. 18. James Campbell of Treesbank.

Wednesday 26 April I gave up my place in the Lainshaw Chaise to Lady Treesbank,1 & rode my mare.2 Miss Annie Cuninghame was with us. We came to Lainshaw to dinner. The Captain3 said he would fullfill his promise of going to Portpatrick with me.4 This left no objection to Miss Montgomery’s going, especially as both her sisters were clear for it.5 This was a great point gained to me. I felt myself quite at home at Lainshaw. Annie & her three eldest brothers were there.6 I gave 344

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 344

27/02/23 6:14 PM

27 april 1769 them raisins & called this giving them Grocery[,] a word which relished much. I sent Thomas7 to Glasgow to bring a chaise. My love for Marian8 revived most beautifully. 1. Mary (Montgomerie) Campbell. She is referred to as ‘Lady Treesbank’ as her husband, James Campbell, is Laird of Treesbank. 2. Presumably the mare acquired from the Ayrshire horse dealer John Browning two years earlier. The Auchinleck overseer, James Bruce, wrote to JB in Edinburgh: ‘John Browning is Just now arreived with your mear which is a vastly nate one, and fine colour and I take her to be a good One for travell’ (19 July 1766, Corr. 8, p. 8). 3. Captain Alexander MontgomeryCuninghame. He had arrived at Auchinleck on 6 Apr. (Lt. John Boswell’s Journals (Yale MS. C 404.3), 6 Apr. 1769). 4. Portpatrick, a coastal town of Wigtownshire, ‘being the nearest point of the whole island of Great Britain to Ireland, and the best place for crossing from one kingdom to the other, the passage being

only twenty miles over’ (Stat. Acct. Scot. v. 484). At this time, the harbour was ‘a mere natural inlet, without any projecting elbow or sheltered recess; and the vessels which frequented it required to be flat-bottomed, and were drawn aground and re-launched at every voyage’ (OGS). 5. Margaret Montgomerie’s sisters were Captain Alexander MontgomeryCuninghame’s wife, Elisabeth (or Elizabeth) Montgomery-Cuninghame (or MontgomerieCuninghame), and James Campbell of Treesbank’s wife, Mary Montgomerie. 6. Walter Cuninghame (d. 1814), later Sir Walter Montgomerie-Cuninghame of Corsehill, Bt.; Alexander Cuninghame (d. 1784); and David Cuninghame (d. 1814), later Sir David Montgomerie-Cuninghame of Corsehill, Bt. (Ominous Years, Chart VI, p. 379; Comp. Bar. iv. 285–86). 7. JB’s servant, Thomas Edmondson. 8. That is, Mary Ann Boyd.

Thursday 27 April The Captain[,] Mrs. M. C. & Lady Treesbank & I took a long walk. They were all of my opinion as to the Irish Scheme. So right is it for a man to have perseverance. I stated to the Captain, the Process Brown against Parr,1 & was assisted by him. As there was no law in the case, his strong common sense was excellent for it. After dinner, we drank pretty freely, & he gave me very good hopes of a scheme that will gratify my ambition in a very honourable way. The families of Auchinleck & Lainshaw & Corsehill & Treesbank2 united may do much; & we resolved they should be united to the end of time.3 As we were much in the spirit of Douglas,4 I put a bottle of wine & a glass in my pocket, & he & I resolved to go & drink to Douglas under the old tower at Corsehill, which had formerly belonged to the illustrious family.5 We stopped at Oliver’s in Stewarton,6 & drank a little punch, & bottled up the rest of our bowl, & then[,] attended by Oliver & John Brown one of the Captain’s fewers[,]7 we went to the ancient spot & did drink most happily & huzza’d as boldly as if there had been a hundred of us. Drink makes men appear numerous. We feel double, as well as see double. Mrs. M. C. & Mrs. Campbell came out to us & brought us home. I was quite drunk. I am sorry for it. I behaved ill to Margaret[,] my own affectionate friend. Such terrible effects may intoxication have. 345

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 345

27/02/23 6:14 PM

27 april 1769 1. The cause of John Brown v. Caesar Parr, for which see pp. 151–52 n. 1. 2. MS. ‘& Treesbank’ interlined. 3. ‘The scheme that would gratify [JB]’s ambition was probably a union of the political interests of the families mentioned, which might help him to be elected to Parliament for Ayrshire’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 206 n. 4, McGraw-Hill p. 194 n. 1). 4. Archibald Douglas, whose appeal to the House of Lords in the Douglas Cause

had been upheld on 27 Feb. 1769 (see Introduction, p. 28, and p. 329 n. 38). 5. The ruins of the castle of Corsehill stood about 1 mile to the north of Stewarton. A drawing of the ruins as seen in 1789 is in Grose, Vol. 2, facing p. 47. The Douglas family owned Stewarton until the reign of Robert III (1390–1406) (Ayr and Wigton, III. ii. 577). 6. Oliver’s tavern. 7. That is, a feuar.

Friday 28 April I rose with a headach, and the dissagreable reflection that I had offended Margaret. When she came down, I found her so much hurt, that she would not have set out on our irish jaunt, had she not been so kind that she would not assign the cause of her staying. I was very sorry, & resolved to make up to her for what she had suffered, by my future good behaviour. We took some breakfast at Lainshaw; & then we & the Captain[,] Mrs. M. C. & Lady Treesbank all drove to Irvine, where Mr. Graham had breakfast ready for us at his house.1 On the road it was curious for me to think how different things in reality may be from what they appear. Margaret & I on bad terms were yet driving in one chaise, & going on a jaunt of pleasure all the way to Dublin. But the quarrels of friends never last. At Irvine we had Dr. George Augustus Cuninghame to attend us.2 We left Mrs. M. C. & Lady Treesbank, & the Captain & Mrs. Graham rode with us to Ayr. It was a charming day; & Margaret & I became gentle & complacent. My love of making a shew was gratified; for we had sent our servants on, to order dinner, & it was a fairday, & the streets were crowded with people; & honest James Gibson3 came forth & marched like a Macer, clearing the way for us. After a cheerful wellcome to each other to Ayr, James the Waiter4 agreably surprised me, by delivering me my roman ring which I had lost.5 I also received a very handsom letter from Paoli,6 so that I was in noble spirits. We dined well & took a merry glass with our old Landlord, who having bought his house, was now Laird Gibson, & then we drank tea at Mrs. Kerr’s where was a whole drawing room of people.7 Among others who should be there but Balmuto’s heiress & her glasgow cousin!8 This was fine for shew. I then paid a visit at Auchinskeith’s,9 where I received a two guinea consultation from a Company at Glasgow, by the hands of Craigengillan.10 I next paid a visit at Mr. Duff’s;11 & then returned to our Inn where we had Mrs. Kerr & her daughter12 & Captain Ballantyne13 & Dr. Mackie[,]14 her attendants, & Miss Cuninghame of Auchinskeith15 to sup with us. 1. Arthur Graham (or Graeme). JB would record visiting Graham at Irvine in 1777 when Graham ‘was dying but seemed

void of thought’. He seems to have been an old acquaintance of the Montgomerie of Lainshaw family, as JB mentions visiting

346

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 346

27/02/23 6:14 PM

29 april 1769 him after visiting ‘old Mrs. Rutherfurd, who had been my wife’s governess’ (Journ. 16 Mar. 1777, Extremes, p. 94). 2. Dr. George Augustus Cuninghame (or Cunningham) (fl. 1744–95), ‘surgeon of various regiments from 1744 and now on the Irish half-pay list with the 93rd Regiment of Foot (William Johnston, Roll of Commissioned Officers in the Medical Service of the British Army, 1917, p. 15; Army List, 1769, p. 212 [National Archives Discovery WO 65/19]). Cuninghame was first cousin to MM’s brother-in-law, James Campbell of Treesbank (Ayr and Wigton[, I. ii.] 656)’ (Corr. 7, pp. 184–85 n. 3). A keen Freemason, Cuninghame was a member of the Lodge Mother Kilwinning, in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, where he served as senior warden in 1766–67 and as depute-master in 1768–69. In the late 1770s, he would acquire a residence in Dublin (Nickerson, ii. 416–17). However, he still had a home in Irvine in 1781 (Journ. 24 Sept. 1781, Laird, p. 398). 3. Landlord at Ayr. Possibly James Gibson (c. 1694–1772), merchant in Ayr (OPRDB). 4. Unidentified. 5. No other reference to this ‘Roman ring’ is known. JB presumably lost or mislaid it, evidently at Gibson’s inn, at the time of his last visit to Ayr (for which, see the entry for 22 May 1767 above). 6. The letter is unreported. 7. Agnes Kerr (BP, Index, p. 17, s.v. Captain Ballantyne). 8. ‘Claud Boswell of Balmuto married Anne Irvine, heiress of Kingcausie [in Kincardineshire], but as the marriage did not take place until 1783 it is not probable that she is referred to here. Just possibly

Balmuto is a slip for Adamton’, meaning that Catherine Blair was intended (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 208 n. 1, McGrawHill p. 195 n. 3). Catherine Blair indeed had Glasgow cousins. Her father’s brother, John Blair, merchant in Glasgow, had married ‘in June 1732, Agnes Alexander, eldest daughter of Robert Alexander, merchant and one of the bailies of Glasgow, by whom he had . . . one son, John, and two daughters’ (Ayr and Wigton, I. ii. 580–82). The son, John Blair, was ‘a merchant in Glasgow, and afterwards in Ayr’ (ibid., I. ii. 582). One of the daughters, Janet, died unmarried, and the other, Margaret (d. 1779), would marry the Rev. James Thorburn (1728–1810), minister of Kingarth, in Bute, in 1770 (ibid.; Fasti Scot. iv. 35). 9. That is, the town house in Ayr of William Cuninghame of Auchenskeith (see p. 194 n. 9). 10. That is, John McAdam of Craigengillan. The company in Glasgow has not been identified. The consultation is not mentioned in the Consultation Book. 11. That is, the property of William Duff, sheriff-depute of Ayrshire. 12. Agnes Kerr’s daughter has not been identified. 13. Unidentified. No officer by the name of Ballantyne is included in the list of officers in the army in the Army List, 1769 (National Archives Discovery WO65/19), nor in the list of officers on half-pay. 14. Unidentified. Possibly an Ayr medical man. 15. Possibly a daughter of William Cuninghame of Auchenskeith and his wife, Margaret Fairlie. Their daughters were Jean, born at Ayr in 1754, and Margaret, born at Ayr in 1755 (OPRBB).

Saturday 29 April I breakfasted at Auchinskeith’s from whence we set out, & drove all the length of the town of Ayr1 (a fine shew surely). We stopped a little at Rozell.2 There I put the Captain into the Chaise, & I rode mare. There was this day a meeting of the Gentlemen of the Shire,4 & so besides shaking hands with Doonside over 347

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 347

27/02/23 6:14 PM

29 april 1769 one of his dykes,5 I had the satisfaction of shewing to many of the Carrick6 Gentlemen. It was fine to meet Sir Adam Fergusson after the glorious Douglas Decision.7 I called out to him ‘Sir Fletcher Sir Fletcher your servant.8 Well Sir Adam I never saw you with so much pleasure. We no longer meet as foes.’ I then shewed him Paoli’s letter, & we were classically companionable. I and my fellow travellers stopt at Maybole & got a pretty good dinner. The old Laird of Killintrigan9 drank a glass with us. I felt myself in love with another woman than Marian.10 I spoke of it to Margaret. She is allways my friend & Comforter. She & I were now admirable company. I observed that there were few people but were mixed characters, like a candle half wax half tallow. But Sir Adam Fergusson was11 all wax, a pure taper whom you may light & set12 upon any Lady’s table. I observed that she & I had more enlarged views as we had fancy to look beyond what really is ours. Like one whose house has a prospect not only of his own lands, but of many beautiful objects at a distance. That Balmuto13 saw nothing but what was solid, & substantially his own. That he had thick high stone walls built round that extent & had that only in his view; except when I surprised him, by sometimes taking a hammer & beating a hole in his walls so as to give him a peep of the fields of fancy which made him caper; but his Mother14 & sisters15 took care to build all up again directly. When I talked that Corsica was a very hilly country, Margaret observed that the french would have uphill work there. We came at night to Armillan.16 Mr. Craufurd17 we had met going to Ayr, & he could not be home; but we found his Mother[,]18 a fine old Lady full of life, an Episcopal & a Jacobite, & his three sisters.19 We were most hospitably entertained; but my serious passion hung heavily on my mind. I feared that the Lady was engaged, & I was in great uneasiness all night. 1. MS. ‘Ayr.’. 2. Rozelle. 3. MS. JB appears to have written ‘his’ first and then amended this to read ‘my’, which would be consistent with the entry for 26 Apr. above. 4. The expression ‘gentlemen of the shire’ did not include noblemen but comprehended the ‘lesser barons’ (State Trials, x. 957; McCrie, i. 329 n.). 5. John Craufurd (d. 1776) of Doonside, an estate in Maybole parish in the Carrick district of Ayrshire (Ayrshire, p. 288; Ayr and Wigton, ii. 427). 6. That is, the Carrick district of Ayrshire. 7. Sir Adam Fergusson of Kilkerran, counsel for the Duke of Hamilton in the Douglas Cause. 8. Sir Fletcher Norton (1716–89) of Grantley (in Yorkshire), admitted St. John’s

College, Cambridge, 1734, admitted member of the Middle Temple 14 Nov. 1734, called to the Bar 6 July 1739 (Reg. Adm. Middle Temple, p. 317), became a King’s Counsel 1754, M.P. Appleby 1756–61, knighted 25 Jan. 1762, Solicitor-General 1762–63, Attorney-General 1763–65, M.P. Guildford 1768–82, appointed to the Privy Council 22 Mar. 1769, later Speaker of the House of Commons 1770–80, created Baron Grantley 1782 (Oxford DNB; Namier and Brooke, iii. 214–17). ‘Sir Fletcher Norton had been one of Douglas’s English counsel and thus on the other side from Fergusson.’ In this passage, JB ‘appears to be recalling to Fergusson some joke about Sir Fletcher that they shared’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 208 n. 3, McGraw-Hill p. 195 n. 5). 9. Gilbert McMeiken (d. 1778/79) of Grange, generally known as ‘of  Killantringan’,

348

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 348

27/02/23 6:14 PM

30 april 1769 an estate in Colmonell parish, Ayrshire (Ayrshire, pp. 103, 300). 10. ‘Margaret Montgomerie herself. [JB] continues to refer to her in this mysterious manner’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 208 n. 4, McGraw-Hill p. 196 n. 6). Letters from JB to WJT and GD clarify the matter (To WJT, 3 May 1769, Corr. 6, pp. 245–47; To GD, 4 May–21 June 1769, Corr. 7, pp. 170–72). See Introduction, pp. 37–38. 11. MS. ‘was’ interlined. 12. MS. ‘& set’ interlined. 13. Claud Boswell of Balmuto. 14. Margaret (Henderson) Boswell. 15. Elizabeth (for whom, see pp. 81–82 n. 4), Margaret (d. 1820 (Edin. Mag. 1820, lxxxvi. 287)) and Marion (d. 1794 (Ominous Years, Chart III, p. 376)). In Pottle’s summary, Claud Boswell, whose father had died when he was about five years old, was ‘sobered and somewhat cowed by having

grown up the only boy in a household of women – his mother and three much older maiden sisters’ (Earlier Years, pp. 288–89). 16. Ardmillan, an estate in the parish of Girvan in the Carrick district of Ayrshire (Ayrshire, p. 270). 17. Archibald Craufuird (d. 1784) of Ardmillan (ibid.; Ayr and Wigton, ii. 249). In 1774, in Liverpool, he would marry Anne Kennedy (Cal. Merc. 11 June 1774), daughter of Robert Kennedy, merchant there. He would be ruined by the crash of the Ayr bank, and the estate would be purchased at auction in 1786 (Cal. Merc. 19 Oct. 1785, 8 Apr. 1786) by his brother Thomas Craufuird (d. 1793) (Scots Mag. July 1793, lv. 362; Ayr and Wigton, ii. 249–50). 18. Marion Hay (Ayr and Wigton, ii. 249). 19. Marion (bap. at Girvan in 1733), Jean (bap. at Girvan in 1735) and Mary (bap. at Girvan in 1739) (OPRBB).

Sunday 30 April I was restless, & rose at six, & walked to the top of the highest mountain from whence I saw a great way. The Sea & Elza1 pleased me. Armillan stands at the foot of a hill. There is little planting about it. But a good garden, some fields in excellent culture & pretty green hills, with a prospect as far as Ireland.2 The old Lady & I were great friends. I read part of3 the service of the day to her, & took her prayer book with me that I might get silver clasps put upon it, at Dublin. No man ever understood the little arts of obliging better than I do. And the peculiar beauty in my case is that what others have done from designing views, I do from an amiable disposition to make people happy. No doubt I have sometimes had my designs too. But, in general, I have none. The Captain found himself fatigued. So Miss Montgomerie & I agreed that he should go no farther. We dined here & at four we set out & took a sabbathday’s journey to Ballintrae.4 By the way, my serious passion came into my mind with more force than ever. I imagined that Miss Montgomerie knew the Lady’s mind, & from some things she said, I concluded that the Lady was engaged. I was amazingly affected. I cried bitterly, & would not speak to my Companion. I who was on an expedition to court a pretty young Lady at Dublin, & had with me a most agreable companion, was miserable from love of another woman, & would not speak to my companion. Such a mind! I never was in greater torment; nor indulged gloomier schemes. We had a good Inn at Ballintrae. For ten minutes I continued as bad as in the chaise, till Miss Montgomerie by chance discovered the cause of all my misery, & with her usual kindness assured me that I was mistaken. I then enjoyed the most delightful calm 349

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 349

27/02/23 6:14 PM

30 april 1769 after a dismal storm. We drank tea comfortably after our journey, read part of the evening service, had some agreable religious conversation, & then supt cheerfully. I was so much rejoiced, that after she went to bed, I got Mactaggart the Landlord5 to drink with me, till I staggered. Such wild transitions! A Punster would say the Landlord might be called Macstaggered. 1. That is, Ailsa, i.e. the island of Ailsa Craig. 2. Newspaper notices in 1785–86 for estate roup state that the house’s ‘situation is uncommonly pleasant, being near to the sea, and commanding a delightful prospect of the Islands of Arran, Ailsay, &c. The gar-

dens are some of the best in the country, and partly walled, and planted with wall fruit’ (Cal. Merc. 26 Mar. 1785). 3. MS. ‘part of’ interlined. 4. That is, Ballantrae, a fishing village in the Carrick district of Ayrshire. 5. Not further identified.

Monday 1 May My last night’s riot hurt me a little. I begged my Companion’s pardon, we breakfasted, & set out in good humour. I entertained my Companion with stories of Mr. Samuel Johnson, & we walked up the monstrous hill of Glenap1 very cleverly. We stopped at [,]2 a place now Sir Thomas Wallace’s,3 formerly a Colonel 4 Agnew’s. It is just a piece of low ground gradually descending from the bottom of a range of hills. There is a neat house, & the most is made of the space that ever I saw, there being a fine garden with variety of flowers & fruit both on standards & walls; fishponds & a few pretty enclosures. The sea is just before it, & the avenue is in the old stile. I had a great desire to buy this place. It was such a one as I had often fancied in a romantick mood; & I thought I & my Companion could live at it most happily. We had a pretty drive along the shore, & through Stranrawer5 to Portpatrick which has the oddest like rocky shore I have seen. It is a poor town & instead of appearing a very publick thoroughfare as it really is, it looks like a remote highland seacoast village. We dined here & after dinner were visited by Mr. Frazer of the Customs6 formerly an Attendant on the Earl of Cassillis,7 an obliging little man. He accompanied us to Craigbuie the seat of Mr. Blair of Dunskey.8 There is little done about it. But there is a fine prospect to the sea. There was nobody at home but the two Miss Blairs.9 The eldest is a very pretty girl, & seems to have much goodness. I did not observe the other so much. We drank tea, & then they walked down with us to the Port, where we engaged a boat the James and [,]10 Captain Cosh[,] Commander[,]11 to carry us to the other side of the water. As we knew we would be sick, we determined to sail that night & try to sleep, as there was a good Cabin. We had our company to sup with us, & were very well. Mr. Campbell of Airies the Collector of the Customs here arrived at home about eleven, & came to us.12 I had not seen him for seventeen years. We were very cordial. At twelve my Companion & I went aboard. I tried to brave it out for a while. But grew very sick. She was better than I. Only I got some sleep which she did not. Nothing can be severer than to be sick at sea; for one has no hope that immediate relief may come as in other sicknesses. One grows quite weak. 350

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 350

27/02/23 6:14 PM

2 may 1769 I thought my irish jaunt madness & that I would not13 try another. Such are our minds at times. It was a very moderate breeze. We got over in about five hours.14 1. Glen App, a ‘picturesque glen’ to the south of the village of Ballantrae (OGS). 2. MS. Blank space after ‘stopped at’. 3. The estate of Lochryan in Inch parish, Wigtownshire (OGS), belonging to Sir Thomas Wallace of Craigie. 4. Lt.-Col. Andrew Agnew of Lochryan, who was born in about 1665 and died after 1730 (Clan MacFarlane). 5. That is, Stranraer. 6. James Frazer (d. 1796), land waiter, Customs (Edin. Mag. Apr. 1796, vii. 322). 7. John Kennedy (1700–59), 8th Earl of Cassillis (Scots Peer. ii. 485). 8. John Blair of Dunskey. 9. The elder daughter of John Blair and Anne (Kennedy) (sister of Sir Thomas Kennedy of Culzean, 9th Earl of Cassillis, and David Kennedy, 10th Earl of Cassillis (Scots Peer. ii. 491)) was Jean (or Jane), bap. at Portpatrick in 1746 (OPRBB). In Dec. of the next year she would marry James Hunter (later James Hunter-Blair, Bt.) and they would have fourteen children (McKerlie, i. 88). She would inherit the Dunskey estate in 1777 and died in 1817 (Corr. 10, p. 3 n. 1). Her younger sister was Clementina (bap. at Portpatrick in 1748

(OPRBB), d. 1811), who, in 1774, would marry John Bell (d. 1776), W.S. (admitted 23 June 1757) (W.S. Register, p. 23). 10. MS. Blank space after ‘James and’. 11. Lloyd’s Register 1764–66 lists a small 40-ton vessel called the ‘James and Mary’, which sailed between London and Ireland. The master was John Matson. No master by the name of Cosh has been traced, but Lloyd’s Register 1768–71 refers to a master called John Cox, who sailed a vessel known as the ‘Nightingale’ between London and Cork, and also to a master called William Cox, who sailed a vessel known as the ‘Peggy’ between Liverpool and Ballycastle. 12. George Campbell of Airies, who died at Portpatrick 27 Nov. 1786 (Edin. Mag. Nov. 1786, iv. Appendix 482). The circumstances of JB’s meeting with him seventeen years earlier (in 1752, when JB was a boy of 11 or 12) are not known. 13. MS. ‘not’ interlined. 14. The crossing was to Donaghadee, County Down (To WJT, 3 May 1769, Corr. 6, p. 245), about 14 miles to the east of Belfast, being the port where all Scottish packet boats landed (Top. and Chor. Survey, p. 25).

Tuesday 2 May1 It was pleasant to see the irish shore; but from my distracted passions, I had not the joy I had promised myself. We put up at the Hillsborough Arms,2 & drank a dish of tea.3 It was a bad house. Between 7 & 8 we went to Collector Boyd’s.4 We were met by our amiable friend Aunt Boyd,5 & in a little her husband came, & we were received like relations & friends. We then saw Miss Boyd6 & the two youngest daughters,7 & my acquaintance Mr. Ponsonby Boyd[,]8 all their children then at home. We found here an admirable house, & took a good second breakfast. Then came Miss Macbride a niece of Mr. Boyd’s.9 The Collector[,] Mr. Ponsonby & [I]10 11 took horses from the stable, & rode out along the shore which is every now & then agreably varied with a fine strand on which a race might be run. I observed the ground naturally good, & much enriched with marle which covers it with daisies. The country here is I may say universally12 enclosed, tho’ not in the best way — with mounds planted all over with whins,13 which do not look so well as 351

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 351

27/02/23 6:14 PM

2 may 1769 thorns, & are apt to spread. This may be much prevented, by clearing the ditches, & often plowing the ground.14 And I observed a droll way of restraining their sheep which was by putting them in couples just like dogs, which however they say prevents their feeding so well. I observed in the churchyards a kind of black stone like slate which was very becoming as grave stones, much more so than our white ones.15 We went to Gray-Abby where is one of the finest gothick16 ruins I ever saw, though there are but small remains of it. There has been a noble Church, & a large Convent. Of the Convent little is left. But there is a good part of the church standing; in particular there is an end window with three divisions in it exceedingly gothick, & covered with a thicker ivy than I ever saw, which adds greatly to it’s appearance. There is also standing a side window just adjoining to this end. It is a lofty arch eight yards or more wide at the bottom. I measured seven lengths and a third of my cane.17 While we were looking at this piece of antiquity, which belongs to Mr. Montgomerie of Rosemount[,]18 his eldest son a young officer walking about with dogs & his gun came up to us, asked Mr. Boyd & Ponsonby[,] whom he knew, how they were, and begged we might all go & see his father’s house which stands not far above where we were.19 We went with him, & found it to be an excellent house of Mr. Montgomerie’s own planning & not yet finished.20 He was not at home; but his Lady & two daughters were very obliging, gave us21 bread & wine, & begged we would stay dinner.22 I already saw a specimen of an irish Gentleman’s family in the country. We walked about the place which is remarkable for a fine view of the Sea, particularly of Strangford bay. There is also a good deal planted. I saw here a singular thing at least to me, a goldfinch’s nest in a young pine. I believe birds never build in pines till they are well grown up, & then, only large birds such as crows.23 We rode another way from that which we had come. As we past by [,]24 Mr. Mathews the Gentleman to whom it belongs met us as he was out riding, & begged we would take potluck with him. So hospitable is every body here. We got home to dinner in good time. Aunt Boyd as we call her, keeps a regular genteel good table as ever I saw, and the Collector and I took our bottle apiece of claret at dinner and supper, every day. 1. MS. ‘Tuesday 2 May.’ interlined. 2. MS. Letter deleted after ‘Arms’. Possibly a failed attempt to write an ampersand. 3. Many of the houses in Donaghadee were inns (Stat. Acct. Scot. v. 494). 4. Hugh Boyd (d. 1772), who ‘had been Collector of Revenue for Donaghadee since 1749, and had served previously as Surveyor of the Port (Extract Will of Hugh Boyd, T/403, and MS. letter of J. Alexander to George Porter, 18 May 1772, Public Record Office, Belfast, Northern Ireland; [Gent. and Cit. Alm.,] 1746–51)’ (Corr. 7, p. 195 n. 1). 5. That is, Mrs. Jane (Laing) Boyd.

6. Jane Charlotte Boyd (b. c. 1744), later the wife of William McMinn (for whom see p. 356 n. 1 below), eldest of the three surviving daughters of Hugh and Jane (Laing) Boyd (). At the time of her letter of condolence to JB dated 14 July 1789 (Yale MS. C 1866), she and her husband had moved to Stranraer, from where she was writing: ‘Mr. McMinn has taken a House & Land here, & I like the situation so well (in spite of its retirement for indeed We are in a Manner secluded from the World) that I believe we shall remain here for some time.’

352

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 352

27/02/23 6:14 PM

2 may 1769 7. The two younger daughters of Hugh and Janet (Laing) Boyd, Catherine Anne (b. c. 1745) and Caroline Elizabeth (c. 1746–c. 1830). Catherine would marry Charles Philip Campbell, and Caroline would marry (as his first wife) George Webb (1756–1839) of Wardenstown, County Westmeath, and Ballyhay, County Down (; ; Burke’s Landed Gentry, ii. 1542–43, s.v. Webb of Caheragh House). Jane (Boyd) McMinn’s letter to JB of 14 July 1789 continued: ‘I presume you know that both my sisters have changed their names, & are perfectly happy in the Connections they have form’d — Mrs. Campbell has but one child & that a boy — Mrs. Webb is happy in four beautiful Boys — she is settled within a Mile of Donaghadee, Mr. & Mrs. Campbell live in the Village.’ 8. Ponsonby Boyd was the second son of Hugh and Jane Boyd (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 211 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 198 n. 8) and was the Surveyor of the Port at Donaghadee (Gent. and Cit. Alm., 1769, p. 64). JB had presumably met him when disembarking at Donaghadee. 9. Mary Ann Macbride (d. 1801), one of MM’s Irish cousins, sister of Capt. (later Admiral) John Macbride (c. 1735– 1800) (Laird, p. 378 n. 4) and of Dr. David Macbride (1726–78) (Corr. 7, chart, p. 273; Oxford DNB). 10. MS. ‘I’ omitted. 11. MS. Blank space after ‘shore’. 12. Word deleted after ‘universally’. Possibly a failed attempt to write ‘enclosed’. 13. Whin: the ‘common gorse or furze’ (DSL (SND), n. 2). 14. In 1740, the land of County Down was described as follows: ‘The Soil runs into Wood, unless constantly kept open, and plowed, and the low Grounds soon degenerate into Moss or Bog, where the Drains are neglected; but by the great Pains and Industry of the Inhabitants it is much reclaimed, and produces good Crops of Corn, especially Oats, and, where Marle

is found, Barley’ (Top. and Chor. Survey, p. 44). 15. Near to Grey Abbey (for which, see n. 17 below) was ‘an excellent Quarry of slate, the longest and best of any in the Kingdom’ (Top. and Chor. Survey, p. 25). 16. MS. ‘gotick’ at top of the page, but ‘gothick’ as catchword at foot of preceding page. 17. Grey Abbey (also known as the Abbey of Leigh or De Jugo Dei), situated on the Ards peninsula on the east bank of Strangford Lough, was founded in 1193 as a Cistercian monastery by Affreca, wife of John de Courcy (the Anglo-Norman knight who invaded Ulster), and daughter of Godred, King of Man. The abbey fell into disrepair in the late Middle Ages and was dissolved in 1541, but in 1626 it became the property of the Montgomery family when it was granted to Sir Hugh Montgomery (c. 1560–1636), 1st Viscount Montgomery of the Great Ards (Historic Monuments, p. 102; Comp. Peer. ix. 138 and n. f, 139; Grose, ‘County of Down’). The nave, after refurbishment, would serve as the parish church until 1778 (Top. Dict. Ireland, i. 674). The style of the abbey, considered one of the most notable examples of Anglo-Norman Cistercian architecture in Ulster (Historic Monuments, p. 102), has been referred to as ‘confidently-handled early Gothic architecture, ambitious in scale, regular in plan, in the Europe-wide Cistercian tradition’, on a site having ‘the air of seclusion which the Cistercians sought out and preserved’ (ibid., pp. 51–52). Francis Grose, writing in 1791, described the scene as follows: ‘The remains of this Monastery shew it was once a large and sumptuous edifice; the east window of the church is a handsome piece of Gothic architecture, composed of three compartments, each more than six feet wide, and upwards of twenty feet high. On each side of the altar in the north and south walls, is also a handsome window of free stone, neatly carved, of the same breadth as the great window, but somewhat lower; they are now grown over with ivy, which gives them

353

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 353

27/02/23 6:14 PM

2 may 1769 a venerable as well as picturesque appearance’ (Grose, ‘County of Down’). 18. William Montgomery (1721–99), High Sheriff of County Down 1755, Town Mayor of Dublin 1759–60, M.P. for Hillsborough in the Irish Parliament 1761–99, later Revenue Commissioner 1772–73, Inspector General of the Excise and Licenses for the Province of Leinster 1776–81, for Dublin 1783–94, Sovereign of Hillsborough 1789– 90, Magistrate of Hillsborough 1789–90 (Johnston-Liik, v. 287 (no. 1447)). His seat was at Rosemount, separated from Grey Abbey by an orchard (Post-Chaise Comp., column 9; Grose, ‘County of Down’). 19. The eldest son was William Montgomery (c. 1752–81), who joined the army as an Ensign in the 40th Regt. of Foot in Aug. 1766. He was promoted to Lt. in Dec. 1768 and would be promoted to Capt. in Jan. 1775, ultimately rising to the rank of Maj. in Mar. 1780. His death in 1781 occurred while serving with his regiment in America (Montgomery and Rowntree Families and Genealogy; Army Lists for 1769, 1772, 1777 and 1781 (National Archives Discovery WO65/19, WO65/22, WO65/27(1) and WO65/31(1))). 20. Rosemount, the construction of which was commenced by William Montgomery in 1762 (Montgomery and Rowntree Families and Genealogy). The house (now known as Grey Abbey House) is still regarded as being one of the finest examples of a Georgian country house in Ireland

(Grey Abbey House website, ). 21. MS. ‘us’ interlined. 22. William Montgomery’s wife was Susanna (Jelly), whom he had married in 1749 (Johnston-Liik, v. 287 (no. 1447)). She was the daughter ‘and sole heir of John Jelly, of Rathmullen, co. Down’ (Burke’s LGI, p. 485, s.v. ‘Montgomery of Grey Abbey’). They are known to have had a daughter, Dorcas, who died unmarried in 1824 (ibid.). 23. European goldfinches typically nest rather high in trees, although they will also use large shrubs or fruit trees, but it would not be particularly surprising to find a goldfinch’s nest in a young pine if there were no larger trees or no other tree species available. While crows and other large birds often nest in large pines, JB is incorrect in saying that small birds never do so: goldcrests, crossbills and siskins largely nest in conifers (which in JB’s day would predominantly have been pines). 24. MS. Blank space after ‘past by’. Probably Springvale, the seat of George Mathews, who had acquired Springvale in about 1729 (Ros Davies’ Co. Down: Surnames (Mat(t)hews)). Mathews was William Montgomery’s brother-in-law, having married in 1754 Montgomery’s half-sister, Catherine Montgomery, daughter of William Montgomery (d. 1755) and his second wife, Elizabeth Hill (d. 1789) (Burke’s LGI, p. 485).

Wednesday 3 May Mrs. Boyd carried Miss Montgomerie and me to wait of1 the Countess Dowager Mount Alexander a french Lady who was first married to a peer of france, & afterwards to Lord Mount Alexander, by whom she has a great estate about Donaghadee.2 She is a fine, lively old Lady, has been much in the gay world, but lives now quite retired, & dresses like a common farmer’s wife. But as she has read a great deal, she is very good company. I should have mentioned that Mrs. Boyd and Miss Montgomery had last night resolved not to go with me to Dublin. This vexed me much; and although I said nothing, they saw me in such an humour, that they this morning agreed to attend me. Our day past very 354

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 354

27/02/23 6:14 PM

4 may 1769 comfortably. We had with us at tea & supper a Mr. Semple & his two daughters.3 I was really pleased to hear the irish tone. But being still sincerely in love with one whom I do not name, I was vastly uneasy in being distracted between that passion & my irish schemes. 1. ‘Wait of’: ‘call on, pay one’s respects to’ (CSD). 2. Marie Angélique Madeleine de la Cherois (or Delacherois) (d. 1771), the daughter of Daniel de la Cherois, a Huguenot who fled to Holland after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, served under William III, and in 1693 became Governor of Pondicherry in India, where he acquired great wealth. She was first married to an Englishman by the name of Grueber (not, as JB suggests, a peer of France), and in or about 1725, having become a widow, she had married the Hon. Thomas Montgomery (d. 1757), who in 1745 had become the 5th (and last) Earl of Mount Alexander and Viscount Montgomery of the Great Ards and had his seat at Mount Alexander Castle, situated at Comber, County Down, at the northern end of Strangford Lough. The Earl dying childless, she had become the sole heiress of his substantial estates in County Down. In 1759, she had mar-

ried Richard Mounteney (d. 1768), second Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Ireland (Knox, pp. 488 and 490; Comp. Peer. ix. 308–09; Top. and Chor. Survey, p. 28; PostChaise Comp., column 13). 3. ‘Mr. Semple’ may have been a descendant of the Sempill family which came over to Ireland from Scotland in 1603 to work as tradesmen for Hugh Montgomery (for whom, see p. 353 n. 17) in the construction of the town and port of Donaghadee (Ros Davies’ Co. Down: Surnames (Sempill)). Memorial inscriptions in the parish of Donaghadee record the deaths of the following: Josia Sempill (c. 1703–80), his sons Willoughby Sempill (c. 1727–85) and James Sempill (c. 1733–78), and his daughter Francelina Sempill (c. 1745–95), also Anne Sempill (c. 1738–1813), Mary Sempill (c. 1749– 1822), Mary Anne Sempill (c. 1751–1817) and Elizabeth Sempill (d. 1828) (JAPMDI, v. 178–79, 353).

Thursday 4 May Mr. Ponsonby & I and a Mr. Macmin a young Gentleman here1 rode to Newtown2 where I found the Curate Mr. Hugh Caldwell3 brother to my old friend Mr. Samuel Caldwell.4 He resembles him a good deal; but is bigger & jollier. Mr. Stewart is proprietor of the place, having fourteen thousand a year estate, round it.5 He is building some new streets, the town as yet being of no great extent.6 Caldwell was very happy to see his brother’s friend. He shewed me a very pretty chappel here which belonged to the Colville family, formerly Lords of this manor.7 It is prettily stuccoed on the cieling, & boxed painted & gilded on the walls. It stands at the end of the church which is of no use[,] there being such a number of Dissenters8 here, that the Chapel is sufficient to hold all those of the established communion to the great concern of Mr. Hugh Caldwell, as I could well perceive from his manner of talking. We drank a glass of white wine at Tom Orr’s,9 & then rode home by Bangor.10 When we came upon the shore, we had a fine view of the bay & old Castle of Carrickfergus that wonderful place of which I have thought and raved so much as the representative of all my irish 355

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 355

27/02/23 6:14 PM

4 may 1769 ideas.11 I sung the song with great violence,12 & was quite the Hawk.13 After dinner Captain Murray of the old highland regiment14 brother to the Duke of Athole,15 and a foreign engineer famous for directing many of the publick works in Ireland,16 arrived in their way to Scotland. Mr. Boyd & I waited on them, & he asked them to his house. They drank tea with us, and shewed us a Rackoon an american animal which they had with them. Lady Mount Alexander drank tea with us. I accompanied her Ladyship home. She asked me in, & gave me a glass of good old claret, & talked of the wonderful works of Nature, Fontenelle’s plurality of worlds17 & other such subjects. I amused my wild fancy for a moment with thinking how clever it would be for me to carry off the old Lady & her great fortune, for which I might well spare a few years. We past the evening at Mr. Boyd’s at Brag. The two strangers went away. 1. William McMinn, who ‘later married Jane Charlotte [Boyd]’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 216 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 202 n. 4). Eldest son of David McMinn (c. 1719–99), merchant in Donaghadee (gravestone inscription, ), he matriculated at the University of Glasgow in 1763 (Addison, #2202, p. 69; ). 2. Newtown, a market town in County Down, at the northern end of Strangford Lough, 8 miles to the east of Belfast (Top. Dict. Ireland, ii. 434), would later become known as Newtownards. 3. Rev. Hugh Caldwell (d. 1789). He had been curate in Newtown since 1759, succeeding his brother, Rev. Samuel Caldwell (for whom see following note), and would become rector of the parish (Ros Davies’ Co. Down: Surnames (Caldwell); Corr. 7, p. 145 n. 3; Leslie and Swanzy, p. 158). He was the seventh son of Samuel Caldwell, merchant, County Derry, matriculated University of Glasgow 1759, M.A. 1760 (Addison, #1901, p. 59). In 1770, he would marry Anne Winder (d. 1775), daughter of the Rev. Peter Winder (c. 1702–75), incumbent of Bangor, and Anne (Courtenay) Winder (Leslie and Swanzy, pp. 84, 96, 158). 4. Rev. Samuel Caldwell (d. 1771), whom JB had met in The Hague in Apr. 1764. It appears that at that time Caldwell,

who was ‘an Anglican Irishman from County Derry’, was ‘assistant priest in the Ambassador’s chapel at The Hague’ (Holland, Heinemann p. 226 n. 1, McGraw-Hill p. 231 n. 6). He graduated Trinity College Dublin B.A. 1753, M.A. 1766 (Alum. Dub., p. 127). From 1756 to 1759 he had been curate of the parish of Newtown, and thereafter rector of Ballymaglasson, County Meath, where he was also a landowner (Corr. 7, p 145 n. 1). In the record of the grant of administration of his estate on 10 June 1771, in which his brother Rev. Hugh Caldwell was appointed, he is described as ‘of Summerhill, Co. Meath’ (Findmypast, Betham Genealogical Abstracts). JB had greatly valued Caldwell’s friendship and advice on matters of great concern to him during his periods of depression and loneliness in Holland: ‘Disputed with Caldwell on Contentment and on Happiness’ (Mem. 11 May 1764, Holland, Heinemann p. 236, McGraw-Hill p. 243); ‘sat up late with Caldwell, who made it clear that irregular love is wrong’ (Mem. 12 May 1764, Holland, Heinemann p. 237, McGraw-Hill p. 243). JB evidently shared portions of his journal with him: on 18 May 1764, after JB’s return to Utrecht from The Hague, Caldwell wrote, ‘I thank you for your exact and curious journal’ (Yale MS. C 724; Holland, Heinemann p. 241, McGraw-Hill p. 247). In several affectionate letters, Caldwell gave JB advice on how to get the

356

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 356

27/02/23 6:14 PM

4 may 1769 better of his hypochondria, and in a letter of 31 May 1764 (Yale MS. C 726) suggested that he come to The Hague for the Ambassador Sir Joseph Yorke’s ball in celebration of the King’s birthday, an invitation which Yorke himself had already issued (Journ. 31 May 1764, Holland, Heinemann p. 257, McGraw-Hill p. 264). On arrival in The Hague, having written to ‘good Caldwell that I was very bad’ and begging ‘him to come for a day to Utrecht’, Caldwell ‘received me with open arms and seemed quite happy to see me’ (Journ. 1 June 1764, Holland, Heinemann p. 258, McGraw-Hill p. 265). Next morning, ‘I took Caldwell out to the Wood and told him the whole story of my most extraordinary life . . . Caldwell was struck with wonder; his amiable mind appeared very plainly . . . He really gave me rational hopes of being yet a man’ (Journ. 2 June 1764, Holland, Heinemann p. 260, McGraw-Hill p. 267). At the Ambassador’s ball, JB ‘took my excellent Caldwell aside and told him how very happy I was, but at the same time said that I was a complete sceptic as to Christianity. He said I was wrong, for its evidence was very convincing; and he owned that he himself had been a sceptic’ (Journ. 4 June 1764, Holland, Heinemann p. 262, McGraw-Hill p. 269). In two later letters (8 and 14 June 1764, Yale MS. C 727–28), Caldwell reported himself pleased with JB’s bearing during this visit to The Hague, and with JB’s continuing freedom from depression afterwards.   In mid-Feb. 1769, JB had sent Caldwell a letter (not reported) via Jane (Laing) Boyd (Corr. 7, p. 140). Caldwell had replied from Newtown (where he was presumably visiting his brother Hugh) on 28 Feb., but noted that he ‘must return next week to the County of Derry, where I propose to stay untill the end of March’, and that afterwards he would ‘proceed to Dublin’. He told JB to direct to him at ‘Maghrafelt’ (i.e. Magherafelt), via Portpatrick, and after the end of Mar. to an address in Dublin (Corr. 7, p. 145). But there is no record of a meeting between them during

JB’s Irish visit, and no further correspondence between them has been reported. 5. Alexander Stewart (1697–1781) of Mount Stewart (County Down) and Ballywan Castle (Donegal), trustee of the Linen Board for Munster 1758–81, M.P. for Londonderry City in the Irish Parliament 1760. He had acquired the manors of Newtown and Mount Alexander from the Colville family in 1744 (Johnston-Liik, vi. 332; Comp. Peer. viii. 110). Stewart was ‘father of the first Marquess of Londonderry and grand-father of the second (better known to history as Viscount Castlereagh). He contributed £100 to the fund which [JB] raised for the Corsicans in Ireland’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 216 n. 3, McGraw-Hill p. 203 n. 6; see also Corr. 7, pp. 224–25 n. 7). 6. ‘Of the small boroughs of the Hamilton and Montgomery territory, Newtownards seems to have been the most prosperous in the eighteenth century, – the wealth of the later owners, the Stewarts, being the cause of its welfare. In 1777 it consisted of about five hundred houses, mostly built of stone and slated; sixty of these having been built within eight years of [1777]. The house of the landlord, Alexander Stewart, “large but not elegant,” was in the principal street opposite the market cross’ (Stevenson, pp. 241–44). 7. The chapel, in Movilla cemetery, was built by Sir Robert Colville (1625–97) (Dickson, p. 202; The Peerage website, ; Top. and Chor. Survey, p. 27). ‘The church of this time was the old one repaired by Hugh, first Viscount Montgomery, but the congregation was so small that the building had been suffered to decay, and a small chapel at the eastern end sufficed for the worshippers. At the same time the Presbyterians had three large meeting houses’ (Stevenson, p. 244). 8. The established church, the Church of Ireland, was Episcopalian. The dissenters were Presbyterians of Scottish extraction. There had been intermittent immigration from Scotland to Ulster in

357

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 357

27/02/23 6:14 PM

4 may 1769 the seventeenth century, and considerable immigration after the Revolution of 1688. In the mid-eighteenth century, it was reckoned that there were about 216,000 dissenters in Ulster and that they probably constituted more than half of the protestants in that province (Beckett, p. xliv; McCracken, p. 39). In 1784, most of the country adjacent to Belfast was said to be inhabited by dissenters, who ‘have their regular presbyteries, kirk-sessions, and other judicatures here as in Scotland, though not with equal authority’ (Walpoole, p. 519; see also McCracken, p. 40). 9. Thomas Orr, innkeeper at Newtown. Not further identified. 10. A sea port and market town in County Down, 11½ miles north-east by east from Belfast (Top. Dict. Ireland, i. 181). 11. JB is looking across Belfast Lough (otherwise known then as Carrickfergus Bay) towards Carrickfergus Castle, on the north side of the Lough in County Antrim. Work on the construction of the castle, ‘justly considered one of the noblest fortresses of [its] time’ (Top. Dict. Ireland, i. 269), was commenced by John de Courcy in the latter part of the twelfth century and was completed by the AngloNorman knight Hugh de Lacy in the early part of the thirteenth century (Culture Northern Ireland website, ). The castle’s ‘long history includes sieges by King John in 1210 and Edward Bruce in 1315, [and] the arrival of William III in 1690’ (Historic Monuments, p. 73). 12. The song which JB sang was The Siege of Carrickfergus, a popular song relating the capture of Carrickfergus Castle during the Seven Years’ War by a French force under the command of François Thurot in Feb. 1760 and celebrating his defeat and death in a naval engagement off the Isle of Man later the same month. The song may be found in Early English Poetry, Ballads, and Popular Literature of the Middle Ages, Percy Society, 1847, XXI. ii. 10–13,

and in Johnson’s Lottery Song Book: or, Vocal Adventurer, c. 1776, pp. 52–54. 13. ‘“Was quite the Hawk” probably means “realised all my spirited ideas of what a Boswell should be”. The crest of the Boswells of Auchinleck is a falcon or hawk’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 216 n. 5, McGraw-Hill p. 203 n. 8). Earlier references to the song by JB show that he associated it with Ireland and in particular his thoughts of courting Mary Ann Boyd. Writing of her from Auchinleck to Sir Alexander Dick on 24 Sept. 1768, he reported that ‘the Irish Heiress whom I went to see at Lainshaw, turned out to be the finest creature that I ever beheld, a perfect arcadian Shepherdess not seventeen . . . I am in love as much as ever man was, and if I played Carrickfergus once before, I play it a hundred times now’ (Corr. 7, p. 111; see also To Dick, 18 Apr. 1768, Corr. 7, pp. 52–53 and n. 23). Dick, who sought to discourage this marriage, as he retained hopes of Catherine Blair, replied on 1 Oct., ‘Dont let this young Calypso inveigle you from your friends and Country. May Carickfergus and all its humors be drowned in Loch Neach if it pollute you with its niddley noddly charms. I still have hopes that the paradise of Adamton will be regained’ (Corr. 7, p. 113). Writing to Dick from Donaghadee on 29 May, JB, speaking affectionately of Margaret, would note that she ‘has been so kind as to accompany me on this enchanting tour to Carrickfergus as we used to say’, and speaking of his time with Mary Ann Boyd and her family in Dublin, asked Dick to ‘figure me dancing a Jig (a Strathspey) with her to the tune of Carrickfergus played by an Irish Piper’ (Corr. 7, p. 178). 14. James Murray (1734–94), second son of Lord George Murray (1694–1760) and Amelia (Murray) (c. 1710–66) (Scots Peer. i. 484). He was Lt. in the Saxon Grenadiers 1749–57, appointed Capt. in the 42nd (The Royal Highland) Regt. of Foot, ‘The Black Watch’, 1757, suffered severe wounds at Ticonderoga in 1758 and life-long disabling wounds in Martinique in 1762. For

358

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 358

27/02/23 6:14 PM

6 may 1769 much of the time during the following few years he was abroad. Later appointed Capt. Lt. and Lt. Col. in the 3rd Regt. of Foot Guards (3 Nov. 1769), Capt. and Lt. Col. (18 Apr. 1770), governor of Upnor Castle 1775, Col. of 77th Regt. of Foot (Atholl Highlanders) 1777, governor of Fort William 1780, promoted to Maj.-Gen. 1782 and Lt.-Gen. 1793. He would be M.P. for Perthshire 1773–94 (Army List, 1769, p. 96 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/19); Army List, 1770, p. 52 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/20); Army List, 1780, p. 153 (National Archives Discovery WO 65/30); Scots Peer. i. 484; Namier and Brooke, iii. 184). He was a man ‘who, when incensed, was capable of executing the most desperate resolution’ (Wraxall, i. 352). 15. John Murray (1729–74), 3rd Duke of Atholl. He was the eldest son of Lord

George Murray (for whom, see preceding note). 16. ‘A Mr. Dularte, an Italian engineer, and very ingenious architect, has had for a few years the superintendance of the [public] works, but the temper of the nation has been so soured by disappointments, that he has not the support which he thinks necessary to do any thing effectual’ (Tour in Ireland, ii. 91). 17. Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds by the French author Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757), first published in French (Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes) in 1686, one of the earliest examples of a popular science work. The book helped establish widespread support for the Copernican model of the solar system and envisaged the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

Friday 5 May I shewed Miss Montgomery a letter I had written to Temple to have his advice how to proceed in my distracted war of passions. She would not allow me to send it.1 But convinced me that the other Lady was of so generous a temper, that I might marry any one I liked best, or found most for my interest; & she would even help me to do so. I admired the other Lady from the bottom of my heart, & all that Miss Montgomery told me of her, with intention to make me easy, only served to distract me more, as it shewed me more of her excellent character. We should have set out before now; but our chaises did not come from Belfast, till this day. 1. The letter to WJT (for the relevant parts of which, see Introduction, p. 37) was eventually sent, probably on 16 June

(To WJT, 3 May 1769, Corr. 6, pp. 245– 47; Journ. 16 June 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 223, McGraw-Hill p. 210).

Saturday 6 May We set out for Dublin, Mrs. Boyd1 & I in one chaise, & Miss Montgomery & Miss Macbride2 in another. We arrived safely at Belfast. We passed along a bridge over an arm of the sea. It is said to be an english mile in length. It is indeed amazingly long. It consists of above twenty arches.3 The town is beautifully situated; but it is not very pretty itself.4 We took a second breakfast here. Two Miss Patersons of Comber5 visited Mrs. Boyd. They were both pretty girls. The eldest was clever and like an Actress, & took my idle fancy. All this place belongs to Lord Donnegal.6 I believe no Subject in the three kingdoms has so large a town in property. There is a good Mall to walk in; but there is some standing water in a ditch that is offensive, & spoils 359

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 359

27/02/23 6:14 PM

6 may 1769 the pleasure of a grove of noble old trees. Miss Macbride & I next were companions. She was full of narrative & very obligingly told me the name of every place we saw, & gave me some account of every person. Between Belfast and Lisburne7 there is the finest country I ever saw, naturally rich, finely diversified, & improved to the utmost. I never saw such a verdure or such a quantity of grass & daisies upon ground. The linen Manufacturers possess this country, and as every one has but a few acres, & pays a rent of four or five pounds an acre, every thing is done to enrich the land, & there is plenty of marle in all corners here. It was very agreable to see a number of Bleachfields, the webs looking so white on the green grass, & the People looking so clean.8 A number of them are Quakers.9 Lisburne is one of the prettiest towns I ever saw. The high street is a good breadth, & consists of admirable brick houses all inhabited by substantial people. We dined here. A Counsellor Smith formerly their member10 said to Miss Macbride that if I was come over to raise contributions for the Corsicans, a considerable sum might be raised in Lisburne.11 I saw here a very odd sign. ‘Groceries liquors and Coffins sold here.’ I made Miss Montgomery look at it, lest my telling it should appear the report of a Traveller. It seemed the man of the Shop was resolved that his Guests or Customers should be in want of nothing; and if the spirits conveyed them a little abruptly to their long home coffins were ready for their reception. I neglected to mention a curious epitaph in the church of Newtown. ‘Here lies the body of one of Joseph Macowan’s children who died April 10 1754.’ Epitaphs are usually intended to preserve the memory of the dead. My old Professour at Utrecht doctissimus Trotzius12 has written a Book De Memoria propaganda,13 or the various methods which mankind have taken to preserve their memories. Amongst these Epitaphs are often mentioned. But this Epitaph could only keep up Joseph Macowan’s own memory, & assure posterity that he had more than one child. But as to the child, it could serve no purpose. It neither mentions it’s14 age, sex, nor even his or her name. At Lisburne I visited my old acquaintance Dr. Trail[,] Bishop of Down & Connor.15 I was a very little while with him. He told me that when he read in my tour to Corsica, that I had played to the brave Islanders on my flute, he thought how he had made me a present of it.16 We went at night to Hillsborough. Near to it I saw some of the largest silver firs that I ever beheld. There is at Hillsborough a magnificent Inn built by the Earl.17 But the Landlord & Landlady are rather too fine people for their business; for they had both their postchaises away with themselves & friends on a party of pleasure. Miss Macbride & I walked round the Earl’s improvements & saw very rich fields[,] all kinds of trees & shrubs, a river formed into beautiful pieces of water and an excellent kitchen Garden. Mr. Atchison from Dunse18 in Scotland My Lord’s Gardener shewed us every thing. He was a sensible understanding man. He had not been in Scotland, for twenty years. He conducted us along a noble broad walk, at the end of which we entered a place hedged round, & all at once found ourselves in the Church Yard which My Lord has taken into his place. It has a fine effect. There are in it many tomb-stones, a number of old trees, & the ruins of the burial-place of the Macguinesss19 to whom this Domain anciently belonged.20 Achison shewed it to advantage; for he said he would take us the nearest way home, & before we had any idea of it we were on the solemn spot, in the shade of night. Our evening past pretty well. 360

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 360

27/02/23 6:14 PM

6 may 1769 1. MS. ‘Dublin. Mrs. Boyd’. 2. Mary Macbride. 3. JB’s information about the length of the bridge is overstated. ‘The bridge over the Lagan river which connects [Belfast] to the county of Down is 2560 feet long, with 21 arches’ (TGTI, p. 5). 4. ‘Belfast is a very well built town of brick, they having no stone quarry in the neighbourhood. The streets are broad and [straight], and the inhabitants, amounting to about 15,000, make it appear lively and busy. The public buildings are not numerous or very striking’ (Tour in Ireland, i. 205–06). 5. For Comber, see p. 355 n. 2. The Miss Patersons have not been further identified. 6. Arthur Chichester (1739–99), 5th Earl of Donegall (later 1st Marquis of Donegall), M.P. for Malmesbury 1768–74 (Comp. Peer. iv. 391–92; Namier and Brooke, ii. 211). As stated by JB, Lord Donegall owned the whole of Belfast. It was said that the rent he received was £2,000 a year (Tour in Ireland, i. 206). 7. Lisburn, a market town, partly in County Antrim but chiefly in County Down, 6 miles south-west by south from Belfast (Top. Dict. Ireland, ii. 278). Situated on the north side of the River Lagan, Lisburn was described in 1794 as ‘a neat well built and populous town’ (TGTI, p. 5). 8. The manufacture of linen (at that time, the principal manufacture in Ireland) was carried on to a great extent at Lisburn, which was renowned for producing the finest linen in Ireland, and some of the largest bleach-fields (or bleach-greens) in the country were adjacent to the town (TGTI, p. 5; Top. Dict. Ireland, ii. 278; Tour in Ireland, ii. 144). After the Revolution of 1688, a considerable number of French Huguenot refugees came to Ireland, and some of them settled in Lisburn, where they introduced significant improvements to the manufacture of linen and ‘by giving an example to others engaged in the same trade, soon raised the quality of the manu-

factures to a degree of excellence previously unknown’ (Top. Dict. Ireland, ii. 278; see also McCracken, p. 41). In County Down in the 1760s, the linen trade was ‘in the hands of a great many persons, and as much as £1000 was expended in Newry by the buyers in a single day, and from £300 to £700 in each of the lesser markets throughout the county, which had then more than eighty bleach-greens’. In those days, the bleaching of webs only took place from the beginning of March to the end of October, for ‘the erroneous opinion . . . prevailed, that linens spread during frost and snow would be injured’ (Knox, pp. 208–09). Arthur Young, writing of his tour in Ireland in 1776–78, wrote of the manufacture of linen being ‘carried on in the country very much by little farmers, who have from 5 to 10 acres’, and remarked that between Belfast and Lisburn on the River Lagan ‘there are 12 or 13 bleach greens’ and that the counties of Down and Antrim ‘are computed to make to the amount of £800,000 a year, and near one-third of it in this vale’ (Tour in Ireland, i. 185, 187). 9. ‘Quakerism was first brought to Ireland from 1650 with Cromwellian soldiers and settlers. By the mid-eighteenth century there were probably between three and five thousand quakers . . . In Ulster, which was the cradle of Irish quakerism and was to become a quaker stronghold, there were far fewer quakers than in either Leinster or Munster . . . Many of them were merchants, but others were landowners, farmers, millers, and manufacturers. Their honesty and strict moral principles won them a reputation for fair dealing, brought prosperity to many, and earned them a good deal of respect’ (McCracken, p. 42). 10. Edward Smyth (1705–88), Lisburn merchant, B.A. 1729 (Trinity College Dublin), called to the Irish Bar 1732, High Sheriff of County Antrim 1738, 1750, M.P. for Lisburn in Irish Parliament 1743–60, M.A. 1746, LL.D. (honorary degree) 1747, Recorder of Carrickfergus 1757 (JohnstonLiik, vi. 294–95 (no. 1946)).

361

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 361

27/02/23 6:14 PM

6 may 1769 11. JB would later write to Sir Alexander Dick from Donaghadee stating: ‘I believe something considerable will be raised in this kingdom, for the brave Islanders. I am indefatigable in fanning the generous fire’ (To Sir Alexander Dick, 29 May 1769, Corr. 7, p. 178). ‘For the story of how JB “fann[ed] the generous fire”, see Richard C. Cole, “James Boswell and the Irish Press, 1767–1795”, Bulletin of the New York Public Library (Nov. 1969), lxxiii. 581–98. As early as Jan. the Irish Exshaw’s Magazine had reprinted the “Memorial for a Contribution in Behalf of the Brave Corsicans” ([for which, see] To John Coutts and Company, 28 Oct. 1768 [Corr. 7, p. 118 and] n. 4) with a note to the effect that the Irish by virtue of their own history should especially sympathize with nations struggling for freedom; it was also reprinted in the Belfast News-Letter and General Advertiser. JB’s arrival in Ireland was widely reported, and several newspapers published his signed appeal for funds, dated 1 June. “A Free Hibernian” (perhaps Boswell himself) supported the appeal in a letter to the Freeman’s Journal for 17–20 June, and several papers of 8 June and later reported the formation of the “Corsican Club” (ibid. 585–88; see also Richard C. Cole, “A New Letter by James Boswell”, Studies in Scottish Literature, 1970, viii. 118–22). News of the defeat of Paoli [at Ponto Nuovo on 8 May] cut short the appeal, but not before several substantial contributions had been made (From Andrew Caldwell, 25 Aug. 1769 [Corr. 7, pp. 224–25] and n. 7)’ (Corr. 7, p. 179 n. 6). Samuel Caldwell, in his letter to JB of 28 Feb., had written that ‘I can assure you that your Book has been received here with universal approbation, and the fortune of your Hero interests us much.’ Writing in expectation of JB’s visit, he proceeded: ‘I fancy you will not dislike intirely the spirit of the Irish; we are ever strugling for liberty, and as constantly loosing part of that glorious privelege: such is the fate of all provinces and states how little soever dependent’ (Corr. 7, p. 144).

12. Christian Heinrich Trotz (Trotzius) (1706–73 (Journ. 1, p. 39 n.3)), Professor of Civil Law at Utrecht. He was a Prussian and lectured in Latin (Pottle, ‘Boswell’s University Education’, p. 252). JB wrote that Trotz’s lectures were ‘excellent’ and that he explained the Civil Law ‘not dryly like a pedant, but like a philosopher’ (‘French Theme’, c. 7–9 Oct. 1763, Holland, Heinemann p. 42, McGraw-Hill p. 43). 13. The work by Trotz to which JB refers is Tractatus Juris de Memoria Propagata (1734). 14. MS. Letter scored off before ‘it’s’. Looks like ‘h’. 15. The Right Rev. James Trail (1725 (OPRBB)–1783), D.D., a Scotsman, Bishop of Down and Connor from 1765 to 1783. Before being raised to the bishopric, Trail had been Rector of St. John’s, Horsleydown, in Southwark, and of West Ham in Essex, and was first chaplain to Francis SeymourConway, 1st Earl of Hertford, who was Viceroy of Ireland as Lord Lieutenant from Aug. 1765 to Sept. 1766 (Fasti Hib. iii. 211; Comp. Peer. vi. 509–10; Gent. Mag. Mar. 1831, Vol. 101, Part 1, p. 281; Mant, Appendix, p. 782). JB had met Trail in Florence in 1765 and had discussed with him ‘those metaphysical and psychological problems which fascinated him’ (Grand Tour II, Heinemann p. 122, McGraw-Hill p. 116). For an expansion of JB’s notes of the conversations, see Robert Warnock, ‘Boswell and Bishop Trail’, in N & Q, 1938, clxxiv. 44–45. 16. For JB’s playing of the flute in Corsica, see Corsica, p. 320, Boulton and McLoughlin, p. 188. He had written to Rousseau from Lucca on 3 Oct. 1765, in part of a lengthy letter giving an account of his travels (but apparently not sent), about taking flute lessons, first in Florence, and then in Siena: ‘Je trouvois á Florence un des meilleurs Maitres pour la flute qui soit en Europe, Dothel, un Lorrainois. Il m’endonnoit quelques leçons et me mit en train d’en continuer l’etude sur un bon plan’ (‘I found in Florence one of the best teachers of the flute in Europe, Dothel, a

362

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 362

27/02/23 6:14 PM

6 may 1769 Lorrainer. He gave me several lessons, and started me on a good plan of study’). The teacher was Nicolas Dôthel fils (1721– 1810). In Siena, ‘Un Professeur en musique qui avoit beaucoup de gout, venoit chez moi tous les aprês-midis, et nous chantames et jouames de la flute quelques beaux airs’ (‘A “professor” of music, who had very fine taste, came to me every afternoon, and we sang and played fine airs on the flute’) (Yale MS. L 1115, translations taken from Grand Tour II, Heinemann pp. 13–15, McGrawHill pp. 13–14). Salvatore Pazzaglia (1723– 1807 (Boer, p. 432)) is named as ‘master of music’ in JB’s list of Sienese acquaintances (Yale MS. M 110). JB’s surviving journals do not mention having received the flute as a present from James Trail. 17. Wills Hill (1718–93), 1st Earl of Hillsborough (later 1st Marquis of Downshire), President of the Board of Trade 1763–65, Aug.–Dec. 1766, 1768–72, Secretary of State for the American Colonies 1768–72, later Secretary of State for the Southern Department 1779–82 (Comp. Peer. iv. 457–58; George III, pp. 576, 578). Hillsborough, a market town in County Down, 3½ miles south-west by south from Lisburn (Post-Chaise Comp., p. 2; Top.

and Chor. Survey, p. 32), was described in 1794 as standing ‘on high gravelly ground, commanding fine views of the Lagan river as far as Belfast, through a beautiful well improved, and thickly inhabited country, and also of Belfast bay to Carrickfergus’ (TGTI, p. 5). Arthur Young, writing of his tour in Ireland made in the years 1776–78, wrote: ‘Lord Hillsborough has marked the approach to his town by many small plantations on the tops of the hills, through which the road leads. The inn of his building is a noble one for Ireland . . . [T]he lake, woods, and lawn are pretty’ (Tour in Ireland, i. 184). In 1774, Lord Hillsborough would erect a ‘handsome’ church with a ‘lofty spire’ (ibid.; see also Top. Dict. Ireland, ii. 5). See Tour in Ireland for a survey of improvements in Irish agriculture at this time. 18. The historic Scottish spelling of Duns, in Berwickshire. The Earl’s gardener, Mr. Atchison, has not been further identified. 19. MS. Apostrophe before final ‘s’ scored off. 20. That is, the Magennis family, who had owned extensive tracts of land in the area until the mid-seventeenth century (Knox, pp. 376, 378).

Sunday 7 May We set out early. Aunt Boyd and I were in one chaise. Our conversation was quiet pleasing and really sensible. We agreed that she should acquaint Mr. and Mrs. Boyd at Dublin that I had come contrary to my father’s inclination; & that I should behave to Miss B. in such a manner as not to be particular, while it was uncertain what could be done seriously.1 Aunt Boyd’s observations on different characters & the conduct of life were exceedingly just & agreable: and so were her notions of religion. We breakfasted at Benbridge,2 a very good house. We next stopped at Newry3 where we saw at a window the three Miss Mccammins who for more gentility call themselves Miss Cumminss.4 Their father keeps a shop here. They are all pretty. But one of them is as beautiful a creature as I ever beheld. We then drove through the mountains of Newry.5 It pleased my Scottish soul to see mountains. The road here is as good as the military roads in the highlands of Scotland.6 About two miles from Newry the horse which the Postilion rode before the chaise where Miss Montgomery and Miss Macbride were[,] lost his feet all at once, & the poor fellow fell on his neck & head, & was severely hurt. It 363

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 363

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7 may 1769 was just by a little farm house into which we went, till the Postilion & his horse recovered. It was a neat highland house, and all the people spoke irish, though they could speak english too. I gave the Postilion half a crown, which proved an admirable medecine to him. We dined at Dundalk a town pleasantly situated on the sea-coast.7 But we [. . .]8 1. When JB reached Dublin later in May, now ‘believing that it was Peggie Montgomery whom he really wished to marry, he conducted himself with such caution toward the heiress and her relatives (who apparently were very well disposed toward his advances) that they took offence’ (Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 220, McGraw-Hill pp. 206–07; see also Earlier Years, pp. 408, 557). JB reported to GD: ‘The young Lady seemed the sweetest loveliest little creature that ever was born. But so young so childish so much yes and no that (between ourselves) I was ashamed of having raved so much about her. I candidly told my situation – that I had come quite contrary to my father’s inclination – That was enough for the present – and a genteel distance was the proper conduct’ (To GD, 4 May–21 June 1769, Corr. 7, p. 171). 2. That is, Banbridge, in County Down, about 12½ miles south-west of Lisburn (Post-Chaise Comp., p. 2). In 1794, Banbridge was described as ‘a flourishing little town’ in which ‘the linen manufacture is carried on to great extent, and with great spirit’ (TGTI, p. 4). 3. Newry, a thriving market town (Top. and Chor. Survey, pp. 8–10), partly in County Armagh but chiefly in County Down, 30 miles south-west from Belfast (Top. Dict. Ireland, ii. 430), was described in 1794 as situated ‘in hollow ground about a mile from the head of Carlingford bay’ with ‘a brook of its own name’ on both sides. ‘It has increased considerably of late years, both in trade and population, owing in a great measure to the Canal lately made through it, between Carlingford bay and Lough Neagh’ (TGTI, p. 4). The canal was commenced in 1730 and opened in 1741, but would not be completed until 1800 (Knox, p. 309).

4. Two of the sisters may have been Miss Jane Cumming of Newry, who would become a mantua maker and would marry Thomas Templeton on 5 Nov. 1796, and Miss Nancy Cumming of Newry, who would marry Robert Stevenson on 23 Aug. 1777 (Ros Davies’ Co. Down: Surnames (Cumming)). 5. The Mourne Mountains, to the east of Newry, and the Cooley Mountains (in County Louth), to the southeast. Arthur Young, writing of his tour in Ireland in 1776–78, remarked that the Mourne Mountains ‘are of a character peculiarly bold, and even terrific’ (Tour in Ireland, i. 195). 6. That is, the military roads initially built by George Wade (1673–1748), during the period from 1724 to 1740 when he was Commander-in-Chief North Britain, and later by William Caulfield (d. 1767). 7. Dundalk, in County Louth, approximately 10 miles to the south of Newry, was described in 1794 as follows: ‘Dundalk is an ancient town, situated on the South side of a small river, and near the shore of a large open shallow bay of the same name. The river admits ships only of small burden. It has been fortified, and some part[s] of the walls are still to be seen, and also of a castle destroyed in 1641, a tower of which remaining mostly entire’ (TGTI, p. 4). Arthur Young wrote that ‘the view down on this town [is] very beautiful, swelling hills of a fine verdure, with many rich inclosures backed by a bold outline of mountain that is remarkable’ (Tour in Ireland, i. 154). 8. The journal breaks off at this point, about four weeks before JB’s return to Scotland.

364

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 364

27/02/23 6:14 PM

Editorial Postscript Only a few details survive of JB’s visit to Dublin, and of the rest of his Irish jaunt. His letter to Sir Alexander Dick of 29 May, written from Donaghadee after his return from Dublin, reported that ‘I have been exceedingly well entertained. The Irish are zealous friends to Corsica, and on that account I found myself treated with a distinction that has been very flattering to the blood of Auchinleck’. He found Dublin ‘really a noble City’, and told Dick that the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland1 was ‘remarkably good to me’. JB had also seen ‘some beautiful country seats’.2 Although JB told Dick he found Mary Ann Boyd ‘really as amiable as I told you I thought her’,3 his interest in MM had plainly deepened.4 In Dublin, JB had also reconnected with a college friend, Capt. James Hoggan (d. c. 1780), of the 51st Regt. of Foot, who had been a classmate in Robert Hunter’s Greek class at the University of Edinburgh.5 He spent time with him and several other young army officers. The chief consequence of roistering with these companions was a severe case of venereal disease, which was to afflict him well into the summer. On 14 July, back in Edinburgh, he noted that he had been ‘blooded’ by a surgeon to ‘begin the cure of a severe symptom. It is hard for one night of Irish extravagance to suffer so much.’6 After writing his letter of 29 May to Dick, JB went from Donaghadee to Belfast, from where, that same night, he wrote to Margaret at Hugh Boyd’s in Donaghadee,7 apologizing for an act of ‘rash and most absurd passion’ (the nature of which is not known), but telling her that ‘taxing me with indifference went to my very heart’, and that ‘these few hours of separation’ (i.e. the trip to Belfast after their quarrel) ‘have had a serious effect on me’. He noted that he was to sleep ‘in the room where you and I were alone’ (evidently a reference to an occasion, not reported in his journal, when the travelling party passed through Belfast on 6 May, when he and Margaret must have found a moment to be together) and he explained that he was to set out next day from Belfast on another pleasant excursion (from 30 May to 2 June), in company with Hoggan and other army officers (‘six of us in three chaises’), to see Lough Neagh and the Giant’s Causeway. He informed Margaret that he would be with her again on Friday (2 June) ‘to dinner’. A sign of JB’s pleasant memories of his travels in Ireland would appear later in his suggestion to SJ, some six years after the tour to the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides, that they make a visit there. But SJ’s disinclination, despite his ‘kindness for the Irish nation’, induced his now famously amusing retort: ‘Boswell. “Should you not like to see Dublin, Sir?” Johnson. “No, Sir; Dublin is only a worse capital.” Boswell. “Is not the Giant’s-Causeway worth seeing?” Johnson. “Worth seeing, yes; but not worth going to see.”’8 JB and MM left Ireland on 7 June, were in Ayr on 8 June,9 and stopped at Lainshaw, from where JB set out early on 12 June, travelling by chaise by way of Glasgow and Whitburn, arriving in Edinburgh ‘about nine’ that night. Andrew Erskine was at the Cross, ‘followed the chaise’ and ‘welcomed me to town, and asked me if I had not carried Miss Montgomerie to Ireland to compare her with Miss Boyd and take the one I liked best’. On arrival at the family’s Edinburgh home, JB found ‘my father and John [i.e. his brother] quite well’.10 365

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 365

27/02/23 6:14 PM

editorial postscript The aborted courtship of Mary Ann Boyd, and the marriage of MM and JB, strained relations with the Boyds. A letter of 20 June from JB to Jane (Laing) Boyd refers to a ‘cold Epistle’ he had received from Catherine (Caldwell) Boyd, Mary Ann’s mother. JB expresses concern that Mrs. Boyd ‘should give credit to an idle report to the disadvantage of a man she honoured with her friendship, and who is not sensible of having done any thing to forfeit it’.11 But feelings were not assuaged, and communication with the Irish relations ceased. Jane Charlotte (Boyd) McMinn’s letter of 14 July 1789,12 written in response to JB’s report of his wife’s death, begins: ‘I sincerely regret that the pleasure of hearing from you should be damp’d by the recital of so melancholy an event as the death of our late friend — I lament my own loss of a Connection whom I had been early taught to love & esteem, & with more concern than ever I reflect on the coldness which for so many years subsisted between us.’ Although abandoned as a matrimonial possibility by JB, Mary Ann Boyd would marry twice and would have ten children.13 JB and MM would marry at Lainshaw on 25 November, the same day on which, in Edinburgh, Lord Auchinleck married his own cousin, Elizabeth Boswell of the Balmuto family.14 After a week’s honeymoon, JB and MM arrived in Edinburgh from Lainshaw on 1 December and took up temporary lodgings in the flat above Lord Auchinleck’s flat in Blair’s Land,15 but on 5 December moved into rented accommodation of their own in the Cowgate.16 1. George Townshend (1724–1807), 4th Viscount Townshend of Raynham (Corr. 7, pp. 178–79 n. 5). 2. He publicized some details of his trips to country seats in a newspaper item (Pub. Adv. 7 July and Lond. Chron. 8–11 July), for which see Corr. 7, pp. 178–79 n. 5. 3. Corr. 7, p. 178. 4. See p. 364 n. 1 above. 5. Corr. 7, p. 201 n. 1; Corr. 1, p. 277 n. 5. 6. Journ. 14 July 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann pp. 244–45, McGrawHill p. 230. 7. Search of a Wife, Heinemann pp. 221–22, McGraw-Hill, pp. 207–08. 8. Life, 12 Oct. 1779, iii. 410. 9. To William Julius Mickle, 8 June 1769, Corr. 7, pp. 180–81. 10. Journ. 12 June 1769, Search of a Wife, Heinemann p. 222, McGraw-Hill pp. 207–09. 11. Corr. 7, p. 184; for a speculative reconstruction of the full set of circumstances

that produced this letter, see Corr. 7, p. 184 n. 1. 12. See p. 344 n. 9. 13. In Feb. 1771, in Dublin (Ancestry, Dublin, Ireland, Probate Record and Marriage Licence Index, 1270–1858), she would marry the army officer and politician Lt.Gen. James Gisborne (c. 1722–78), M.P. for Tallow in the Irish Parliament, 1763–68, Lismore 1768–78, Acting Commander-inChief of the Forces in Ireland (later Maj.Gen) (Corr. 7, p. 111 n. 1; Johnston-Liik, iv. 266–67 (No. 0851)), who was some thirty years her senior (he was admitted St. John’s, Cambridge, 1740, aged eighteen (John Venn and J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part 1, Vol. II, 1922, p. 220)). There were four children of the marriage. The eldest, James Frederick Gisborne (bap. 22 Feb. 1773, Staveley, Derbyshire (Ancestry, England, Births and Christenings, 1538–1975)) died in 1789 (Ancestry, Ireland, Indexes to Wills, Probate Administration, Marriage Bonds and Licences, 1591–1866).

366

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 366

27/02/23 6:14 PM

editorial postscript Jane Charlotte (Boyd) McMinn’s letter of 14 July 1789 reported that her cousin ‘has been in a very delicate state of Health for some Months, which was render’d still worse by her affliction on the death of her eldest son, Frederick Gisborne’.   One year after Gen. Gisborne’s death, in Feb. 1779, she married Capt. Gilbert Webster of the 18th Foot (Corr. 7, p. 111 n. 1), who died in Belfast in 1792 (Ancestry, Ireland, Indexes to Wills, Probate Administration, Marriage Bonds and Licences, 1591– 1866; Gent. Mag. Vol. 62 part 1, p. 385).

There were six children from this second marriage. Jane McMinn’s letter stated that ‘Mr. & Mrs. Webster . . . have a large Family[,] six little Websters & three Gisbornes’. 14. Earlier Years, p. 441. 15. Lt. John Boswell’s Journals (Yale MS. C 404.3), 1 Dec. 1769. For Blair’s Land, see p. 30 n. 215. It seems that Lord Auchinleck had rented a room in the flat above his for several years (Earlier Years, p. 464). 16. Lt. John Boswell’s Journals, 5 Dec. 1769.

367

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 367

27/02/23 6:14 PM

glossary of scottish legal terms and latin and scots words and phrases The definitions contained in this Glossary are primarily taken from the Glossary of legal terms and Latin and Scots words and phrases in LPJB 1, Appendix IV, pp. 397–431, the principal sources of which are listed in LPJB 1, pp. xii–xiii. This Glossary gives the meaning of Scottish legal terms as used in JB’s day without taking account of any subsequent changes. Absolvitor

A final judgment in civil proceedings finding in favour of and absolving the defender (q.v.).

Action

Civil (as opposed to criminal) court proceedings seeking a remedy advantageous to the pursuer (q.v.) or petitioner (q.v.).

Advising

Giving judgment, or returning a verdict, after taking time for deliberation.

Advocate

A member of the Scottish Bar by virtue of being admitted to the Faculty of Advocates (q.v.).

Advocate-Depute

An advocate (q.v.) nominated by the Lord Advocate (q.v.) to assist him in prosecuting in criminal proceedings in the High Court of Justiciary (q.v.).

Advocation

A form of appeal to a higher court against the decision of an inferior court before final judgment.

Aliment

Legally enforceable maintenance of a dependant.

Animus injuriandi

The intention of harming.

Answers

A written pleading lodged in response to a petition (q.v.), a representation (q.v.) or a condescendence (q.v.).

Arbiter

An impartial person appointed to make a determination in respect of an issue in dispute between parties.

Arbitrary punishment

A punishment imposed by a judge, the extent of which being in the discretion of the judge, but not extending to capital punishment.

Art and part

In the capacity of an accomplice in relation to a crime. 368

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 368

27/02/23 6:14 PM

glossary Assignee

A transferee of a right.

Assize

A jury (q.v.) (Scots).

Assoilzie

(1) To absolve a defender (q.v.) by granting decree (q.v.) of absolvitor (q.v.). (2) To absolve an accused in criminal proceedings.

Avisandum

The reservation of a case for further consideration in private before giving judgment.

Bailie (or baillie)

Magistrate of a burgh (q.v.).

Banishment

Transportation to the colonies.

Baron of Exchequer

A judge in the Court of Exchequer (q.v.).

Barony

Land (and associated rights) granted directly by the Crown.

Bill (of exchange)

A document containing a signed order for payment by another person on demand.

Borough

A burgh (q.v.).

Burgh

A royal burgh (q.v.) or a burgh of barony (q.v.).

Burgh of barony

A town incorporated by royal charter within a barony (q.v.).

Charge

An order to comply with a court decree (q.v.), requiring a debtor to perform an act or pay within a certain time.

Charger

A party applying a charge (q.v.), such as a creditor attempting to obtain payment of his debt.

Charter

A deed (q.v.) granted by a superior (q.v.), including a grant of an interest in heritable (q.v.) property.

Circuit court

See High Court of Justiciary.

Commissary

A judge in the commissary court (q.v.), the inferior commissaries (appointed in most of the main towns in Scotland) having jurisdiction in matters such as defamation (q.v.), the conferring of judicial authority (known as confirmation) for the administration of the estates of deceased persons, certain actions for debt, and claims by wives for aliment (q.v.) from their husbands; the commissaries in the commissary court of Edinburgh also having exclusive jurisdiction in respect of matters relating to status (such as divorce and legitimacy).

Commissary court

A court (originally ecclesiastical) established in Edinburgh and most of the main towns in Scotland, the judges of which being termed commissaries (for whom, see commissary). 369

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 369

27/02/23 6:14 PM

glossary Commission for taking A court warrant authorizing a qualified person (the evidence commissioner (q.v.)) to take the evidence of witnesses. Commissioner

Person authorized by the court to recover documents in terms of a commission for recovery of documents or to take the evidence of witnesses in terms of a commission for taking evidence (q.v.).

Commissioner of Supply

A commissioner for the assessment and collection of land tax within a county.

Common property

Property belonging to more than one person, held in undivided shares.

Commonty

Land subject to a right of use in perpetuity by persons in common.

Competency

The aptness of a legal remedy.

Complainer

The petitioner (q.v.) in respect of a Petition and Complaint (q.v.).

Complaint

See Petition and Complaint.

Condescendence

A written pleading containing a statement of facts.

Constable, Lord High

An officer of state having jurisdiction in certain criminal matters.

Counsel

An advocate (q.v.).

Court of Exchequer

A court consisting of a Lord Chief Baron and four other Barons and having jurisdiction in all revenue matters in Scotland; but governed by English procedures, and allowing both Scottish and English counsel to appear before it.

Court of Justiciary

See High Court of Justiciary.

Court of Session

The supreme civil court in Scotland, consisting of an Inner House and an Outer House, the Inner House comprising fifteen judges, known as Lords of Session, sitting together and presided over by one of their number, known as the Lord President; the Outer House judges being individual judges from the Inner House sitting on their own; the principal feature of the Court of Session being that of a unitary court with its judges (in theory, at least) always sitting and deciding cases together as one body, the judges sitting in the Outer House not doing so as fully independent judges, but rather as representatives of the Court as a whole.

Criminal Letters

A kind of written criminal charge in the name of the sovereign. 370

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 370

27/02/23 6:14 PM

glossary Curator

A person appointed to administer the estate of another, or a person entitled to do so according to law.

Damages

Compensation payable for loss or injury caused by the fault of another.

Dean of the Faculty of Advocates

The leader of the Faculty of Advocates (q.v.), elected by members of the Scottish Bar.

Declarator

A judicial declaration of a person’s rights.

Decree (and decreet)

Final judgment.

Deduce

To subtract or deduct (Scots).

Deed

A formal legal document, such as a document setting out the terms of an obligation or agreement, authenticated by being signed in accordance with the formalities laid down by law.

Defamation, action of

An action (q.v.) for reparation in respect of the making of a statement harmful to a person’s character and reputation.

Defender

A defendant in civil (as opposed to criminal) proceedings.

Depose

To give evidence as a witness; declare upon oath.

Deposition

The testimony of a person giving evidence on oath, put down in writing.

Digest, the

A digest of Roman law ordered by the Emperor Justinian I.

Diligence

The process for enforcement of a debt.

Disposition

A deed (q.v.) transferring an interest in property.

Division

The division of common property (q.v.) or an action (q.v.) for such division.

Duplies

A written pleading lodged in response to replies (q.v.).

Dyke

A wall (Scots).

Entail

A deed (q.v.) securing the destination of heritable (q.v.) property to a specified series of heirs or successors.

Exchequer Court

See Court of Exchequer.

Executed

(1) In the case of a court writ or writ relating to diligence (q.v.), the term signifying the effecting of service of the writ, or, in the case of diligence, the carrying out of the diligence. (2) In the case of a deed (q.v.), the term signifying the effecting of the authentication of the deed by signing it in accordance with the formalities laid down by law. 371

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 371

27/02/23 6:14 PM

glossary Execution Ex parte Expenses

Extracted

Faculty of Advocates Fee

Feu

Feuar Feudal Feu-right Fiar Fiscal Freeholder Great Seal Haver Heir of conquest

Heir of entail Heir of line

Heirs-portioners

The carrying out of an action, such as the execution of diligence (q.v.). From one side only, i.e. only one party being heard. The costs of an action (q.v.), such as fees of solicitors (see solicitor) or advocates (see advocate), court dues and other outlays. In the case of a decree (q.v.), the term signifying the issuing of a formal statement of the decree by the appropriate officer. The society of the members of the Scottish Bar, i.e. advocates (see advocate) admitted to the Faculty. The interest in heritable (q.v.) property subject to the interest of a person entitled to a liferent (q.v.) over the property. The interest of a feuar (q.v.) in heritable (q.v.) property held subject to the rights of a superior (q.v.), conferring the right to possess and use the property. A person holding land in feu (q.v.). Relating to the feudal system of land tenure. See feu. A right under the feudal system of land tenure. See feu. The holder of a fee (q.v.). A shortened form of Procurator Fiscal (q.v.). A person having the right to elect, or be elected, a Member of Parliament by virtue of holding certain lands. The principal seal of the Crown, used on important state documents to signify the sovereign’s approval. A person holding documents required as evidence in an action (q.v.). The person succeeding to the heritable (q.v.) property of a deceased which the deceased acquired by purchase or gift. The person having the right to succeed to lands subject to an entail (q.v.). The person succeeding to a deceased’s heritable (q.v.) property as a matter of law, preference being given to the deceased’s eldest son. Females in the same degree to a deceased, succeeding in the absence of a male heir to the heritable (q.v.) estate in equal portions, a female predeceasing being represented by her heir as heir-portioner even if a male. 372

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 372

27/02/23 6:14 PM

glossary Heritable

Relating to or connected with lands and buildings and rights over them.

Heritor (or heretor)

A landowner liable to contribute to the maintenance of the parish church and manse.

High Constable

see Constable, Lord High

High Court of Justiciary

Scotland’s highest criminal court, consisting of the Lord Justice-General (q.v.), the Lord Justice-Clerk (q.v.) and five judges of the Court of Session (q.v.), each holding office as a Lord Commissioner of Justiciary (q.v.); the judges thereof, in addition to sitting in Edinburgh, holding ‘circuit courts’ at various towns around Scotland – Jedburgh, Dumfries and Ayr (the Southern Circuit), Glasgow, Inveraray and Stirling (the Western Circuit) and Perth, Aberdeen and Inverness (the Northern Circuit); the President of the Court being nominally the Lord Justice-General, but, on account of the Lord Justice-General being a layman, in practice the Lord Justice-Clerk; trials in Edinburgh being normally heard by five judges sitting together, and all trials taking place before a jury (q.v.); responsibility for the prosecution of trials in the Court of Justiciary lying with the Lord Advocate (q.v.).

Homologate

To approve, ratify, adopt or confirm by actings, and thus validate, an otherwise defective contract or deed (q.v.).

Improbation

An action (q.v.) to have an allegedly false or forged deed (q.v.) annulled by way of reduction (q.v.).

In absentia

In absence.

Incident diligence

A judicial warrant to compel a haver (q.v.) to appear before a court or commissioner (q.v.).

Indictment

Running in the name of the Lord Advocate (q.v.), a written accusation charging a pannel (q.v.) with a criminal offence.

Infeft

In possession of a vested interest in heritable (q.v.) property as a feuar (q.v.).

Information

A written statement of a party’s argument ordered by a Lord Ordinary (q.v.) when reporting a case to the Inner House of the Court of Session (q.v.).

Inner House

See Court of Session.

Instruct

To vouch or prove (Scots).

Instructing agent

A solicitor (q.v.) giving instructions to an advocate (q.v.). 373

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 373

27/02/23 6:14 PM

glossary Interim

In the meantime.

Interlocutor

The official document, signed by the presiding judge, expressing an order or judgment of the court in an action (q.v.).

Issue

Offspring, descendants.

Jointure-house

A house held by a deceased’s widow in liferent (q.v.).

Jury

In criminal proceedings, fifteen men appointed to hear the evidence and to determine the verdict, a simple majority being sufficient for the verdict; and the possible verdicts being any one of ‘guilty’, ‘not guilty’ or ‘not proven’, the last resulting in as full an acquittal as a verdict of ‘not guilty’.

Justice of the Peace

A person appointed by the Crown with extensive powers, including authority to try cases in respect of riots and breaches of the peace, to resolve disputes between masters and servants with regard to wages, to maintain roads and bridges, to enforce laws in relation to beggars and vagrants, and so forth.

Justiciary Court

See High Court of Justiciary.

Kindly tenant

A person holding land by virtue of a hereditary lease capable of being transferred by the tenant to a third party, a form of holding only recognized in Lochmaben.

Letters

A warrant or writ issued by the Court of Session (q.v.), such as letters of incident diligence (q.v.), advocation (q.v.) and suspension (q.v.).

Libel

(1) A statement in criminal proceedings of the charge specifying the alleged offence. (2) To set forth in a libel. (3) A written defamatory statement.

Liferent

The right to the use and enjoyment of the property of another (the fiar (q.v.)) for life, including the right to the fruits of the property, but not to any part of the property or capital itself.

Lord Advocate

The principal law officer of the Crown in Scotland and effective head of the Scottish administration, with responsibility for criminal prosecution.

Lord Clerk Register

An officer of state, custodian of the public registers and national records of Scotland.

Lord Commissioner of Justiciary

A judge of the High Court of Justiciary (q.v.).

374

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 374

27/02/23 6:14 PM

glossary Lord Justice-Clerk

In practice, the president of the High Court of Justiciary (q.v.).

Lord Justice-General

Nominal president of the High Court of Justiciary (q.v.), the office being honorary and held by a layman.

Lord of Council and Session

A judge of the Court of Session (q.v.).

Lord of Session

A judge of the Court of Session (q.v.).

Lord Ordinary

A judge of the Court of Session (q.v.) sitting on his own in the Outer House.

Lord President

The presiding judge of the Court of Session (q.v.).

Lord Probationer

A recently installed judge of the Court of Session (q.v.) while going through the period of his ‘trials’.

Macer

An usher in the Court of Session (q.v.) – his title deriving from his carrying a mace – with responsibility for calling actions (see action) and executing the orders of the court; and in certain cases having judicial functions in respect of proceedings known as service of heirs (see service).

Marischal

An officer of state having jurisdiction in certain criminal matters.

Memorial

A written pleading for a party in the Court of Session (q.v.) setting out that party’s understanding of the relevant facts and his legal arguments.

Messenger-at-Arms

An officer of court with authority to serve writs (see writ) and execute (see executed) warrants of the Court of Session (q.v.) and High Court of Justiciary (q.v.).

Michaelmas

29 September.

Michaelmas head court

A non-judicial court held annually in each county at Michaelmas (q.v.) by the freeholders (see freeholder) to make up the Roll of Freeholders (q.v.).

Missive

Letter setting out a party’s terms in a transaction or proposed transaction.

Mora

Delay.

Mournings

The expenses reasonably incurred by a widow on such items as mourning clothes on her husband’s death, such expenses being claimable from his estate.

Muir

Moor (Scots).

Muirish

Composed wholly or mainly of moorland. 375

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 375

27/02/23 6:14 PM

glossary Notary Public

Officer with duties including the authentication of certain deeds (see deed).

Outer House

See Court of Session.

Pains of law

Penalty.

Pandects

Another name for the Digest (q.v.).

Pannel

The accused in criminal proceedings (Scots).

Petition

(1) A reclaiming petition (q.v.); (2) a Petition and Complaint (q.v.); (3) an incidental application to the court during the course of proceedings.

Petition and Complaint

A form of writ (q.v.) for bringing summary actions (see action), such as (1) complaints against solicitors (see solicitor) or litigants in actions pending before the court and (2) complaints in respect of the judgments of freeholders (see freeholder and Michaelmas head court) in election matters.

Petitioner

A person presenting a petition (q.v.).

Pound Scots

A unit of Scottish currency abolished by the Act of Union of 1707 but still used as the basis for some calculations until the late eighteenth century; worth one twelfth of a pound sterling, and comprising twenty shillings Scots, each of which comprising twelve pennies Scots.

Prescription

The passing of a long period of time resulting in a right being established if unchallenged.

Principal Clerk of Session

One of the principal clerks in the Court of Session (q.v.), officiating in the Inner House.

Probatio probata

An uncontradictable fact established by evidence.

Process

(1) An action (q.v.). (2) All the formal documents held by the court in relation to an action.

Procurator

An agent, including counsel (q.v.) or a solicitor (q.v.).

Procurator Fiscal

A public prosecutor in an inferior court.

Proof

(1) Evidence in general. (2) Convincing evidence establishing a fact. (3) The hearing of evidence in an action (q.v.) by a judge sitting alone or by a commissioner (q.v.).

Pursuer

A person bringing an action (q.v.) by way of summons (q.v.).

Reclaim

(1) To appeal from an interlocutor (q.v.) of a Lord Ordinary (q.v.) to the Inner House of the Court of Session (q.v.). (2) To apply to the Inner House seeking review of an interlocutor of the Inner House. 376

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 376

27/02/23 6:14 PM

glossary Reclaiming petition

(1) An application to the Inner House of the Court of Session (q.v.) seeking a review of an interlocutor (q.v.) of the Inner House. (2) An application to the Inner House seeking a review of an interlocutor of a Lord Ordinary (q.v.).

Reduction

Judicial annulment; an action (q.v.) seeking such.

Relevancy

See relevant.

Relevant

Said of a charge in criminal proceedings where facts alleged by the prosecution, if proved, would constitute a criminal offence.

Replies

A written pleading lodged in response to answers (q.v.).

Representation

A written pleading in the Court of Session (q.v.), presented to a Lord Ordinary (q.v.), seeking an alteration to an interlocutor (q.v.) of the Lord Ordinary.

Respondent

A person opposing a court writ such as a petition (q.v.) or a representation (q.v.).

Restitution

An action (q.v.) by a party to a transaction to restore him to the same position he would have been in if he had not entered into the transaction.

Roll of Freeholders

A roll of the persons in a county entitled to elect, or be elected, a Member of Parliament.

Roup

An auction (Scots).

Royal burgh

A town incorporated by royal charter.

Sasine

Possession of heritable (q.v.) property.

Service

Judicial proceedings (known as service of heirs) for establishing an heir’s title to the heritable (q.v.) property of a deceased person.

Servitude

A restriction on the use of one area of land for the benefit of another or a right for the benefit of one area of land over another. The Scottish equivalent of an English easement.

Session

Each period during the year for the sitting of the Court of Session (q.v.), the winter session being from 12 November to 11 March and the summer session from 12 June to 11 August.

Sheriff

A shortened form of sheriff-depute (q.v.).

Sheriff court

The main inferior court in Scotland, presided over by a sheriff-depute (q.v.) in each sheriffdom (q.v.), with jurisdiction in respect of civil and criminal matters.

377

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 377

27/02/23 6:14 PM

glossary Sheriff-depute

A judge of the sheriff court (q.v.). Called the sheriffdepute notwithstanding being in fact the principal sheriff in the sheriffdom (q.v.).

Sheriff-depute substitute

Appointed and paid by a sheriff-depute (q.v.), a substitute (often unqualified) dealing with simple cases in the sheriff-depute’s absence.

Sheriffdom

The territorial area covered by the jurisdiction of a sheriff-depute (q.v.).

Sheriff-substitute

A shortened form of sheriff-depute substitute (q.v.).

Signet

The seal of the sovereign for authenticating writs (see writ) or warrants for diligence (q.v.).

Solicitor

A lawyer (frequently referred to as a writer (q.v.) or a procurator (q.v.)) employed to advise on legal matters, to prepare legal papers, to conduct proceedings and to appear in proceedings before the lower courts.

Solicitor-General for Scotland

The second of the Scottish law officers, responsible for assisting the Lord Advocate (q.v.).

Squalor carceris

The right of a creditor to have his debtor imprisoned for failure to pay the debt.

Summons

A writ in the Court of Session (q.v.) setting out the claim of the pursuer (q.v.).

Superior

The person under the feudal system of land tenure holding rights over the interest of the feuar (q.v.) in heritable (q.v.) property.

Superiority

The estate of a superior (q.v.).

Suspender

A person bringing an action (q.v.) of suspension (q.v.).

Suspension

A procedure in the Court of Session (q.v.) for (1) staying the execution (q.v.) of diligence (q.v.) or (2) reviewing a decree (q.v.) of an inferior court.

Tailzie

An entail (q.v.).

Term

The date for payment of rent, the legal terms being Whitsunday (q.v.) and Martinmas (11 November).

Triplies

A written pleading lodged in response to duplies (q.v.).

Tutor ad litem

A guardian appointed to protect the interests of a pupil (being a boy under the age of fourteen or a girl under the age of twelve) in court proceedings.

Uttering

The crime of passing as genuine a forgery, such as a false banknote, with the intention of deceiving. 378

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 378

27/02/23 6:14 PM

glossary Vacation

A recess in the Court of Session (q.v.) between one session (q.v.) and another.

Whitsunday

15 May. A Scottish quarter day, and legal term day, for the payment of rent.

Writ

(1) A document of some legal significance. (2) A court writ, such as a summons (q.v.) or petition (q.v.).

Writer

A solicitor (q.v.).

Writer to the Signet

A solicitor (q.v.) admitted as a member of the ancient Scottish legal society known as The Society of Writers to the Signet, the members of which having a virtually exclusive right to prepare and sign writs (see writ) passing the Signet (q.v.).

379

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 379

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Sovereigns and members of royal families are listed under their first names. All other persons are listed under their surnames (with cross-references to their titles where appropriate). The following abbreviations are used: B. (Baron), Bt. (Baronet), C. (Count), D. (Duke), E. (Earl), Hon. (Honourable), M. (Marquis), P. (Prince), Rev. (Reverend), V. (Viscount), W.S. (Writer to the Signet), JB (James Boswell), MM (Margaret Montgomerie Boswell), GD (George Dempster), AE (Andrew Erskine), SJ (Samuel Johnson), JJ (John Johnston), WJT (William Johnson Temple). Abercorn, 8th E. of. See Hamilton, James, 8th E. of Abercorn Aberdeen: 95–96 n. 2, 219 n. 2, 251 n. 3; Aberdeen Infirmary (later Aberdeen Royal Infirmary), 95 n. 2; King’s College, 77 n. 2; Marischal College, 95–96 n. 2, 308 n. 1; University of, 87 n. 7 Aberdeen, 2nd E. of. See Gordon, William, 2nd E. of Aberdeen Aboyne, 1st E. of. See Gordon, Charles, 1st E. of Aboyne Acts of the Parliaments of Great Britain: Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746 (20 Geo. 2, c. 43), 75 n. 1; Parliamentary Elections Act 1742 (16 Geo. 2, c. 11), 205 n. 2; Stamp Act 1765 (5 Geo. 3, c. 12), 267 n. 21, 321 n. 2 Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland (cited by reference to the Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707 (general editor Keith M. Brown; University of St. Andrews website ): Criminal Procedure Act 1701 (1700/10/234), 84 n. 1, 193 n. 5, 334 n. 12, 335 n. 13; Election of Commissioners Act 1681 (1681/7/45), 205 n. 2; Enclosing Ground Act 1685 (1685/4/73), 101 n. 3; Planting Act 1698 (1698/7/160), 101–02 n. 3; Statute Law Revision Act 1426 (1426/13), 310 n. 12 Adam, Alexander (1741–1809), rector of Edinburgh High School, 217 n. 5 Adam, John (1721–92), architect, 70 n. 3

Adam, Robert (1728–92), architect, 81 n. 2 Adam, Robert, sailor, 194 n. 6 Adam, William (1689–1748), architect, 70 n. 3, 88 n. 10 Adamton, Ayrshire, 31–32, 35, 126 n. 1, 190 n. 3, 358 n. 13 Addison, Joseph (1672–1719), essayist, 291 n. 3; Cato, 289, 291 n. 3; Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, 15 Adie, Peter (d. 1769), surgeon, 131 n. 3, 136, 137–38 n. 9; JB as trustee for, 138 n. 9 Advocates, Faculty of, 2 and n. 8, 10, 56 n. 40, 58 n. 47, 69 n. 2, 72 n. 6, 93 n. 2, 124 n. 3, 127 n. 2, 131 n. 4, 133 n. 2, 145–46 n. 1, 195–96 n. 4, 331 n. 4; JB appointed to committee to find suitable new site for Library, 227 n. 1; JB appointed private examinator on civil law, 227 n. 1; JB appointed private examinator on Scots law, 227 n. 1; JB appointed ‘Publick Examinator’, 78 n. 4; JB passes examination in civil law, 2 and n. 6; JB passes examination in Scots law, 3; JB re-elected ‘Publick Examinator’, 227 n. 1; JB undergoes public examination on thesis, 3; custom for consultations with counsel to be in taverns, 123, 124 n. 6; old style of consultations, 123, 124 n. 6, 242; practice of holding consultations at an advocate’s house only just developing, 213 n. 3; Advocates’ Library, 78 n. 3, 103 n. 4, 107 n. 3, 176 n. 4, 227

380

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 380

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index n. 1; meetings of, 10–11, 34, 77, 78 nn. 3–4, 79 n. 12, 176–77 n. 4, 226, 227 n. 1; appointment of Lawyers for the Poor, 77, 78 n. 4; customary for aspiring advocates to study Roman law in Holland, 2 Africa, 212 n. 7, 301 n. 10 Agnew, Lt.-Col. Andrew (b. c. 1665; d. after 1730), of Lochryan, 350, 351 n. 4 Aiken (or Aitken), Robert, writer in Edinburgh, 162 and n. 1, 163 Ailsa Craig, island of, 174, 349, 350 n. 2 Aitchison, John, of Rochsolach and Airdrie, 218 n. 1 Aitken, Rev. Edward (d. c. 1771), dissenting minister, boyhood tutor of Lord Auchinleck, 254 n. 4, 255 nn. 9, 10; JB visits, 253 Albinus, from Utrecht, 314, 314–15 n. 3; on Belle de Zuylen, 314 Alemoor, Lord. See Pringle, Andrew, Lord Alemoor Alexander III (‘the Great’) (356–323 b.c.), King of Macedon, 164 Alexander, Agatha (de la Porte), 2nd wife of William Alexander, merchant, 218 n. 1 Alexander, Christian (Aitchison) (d. 1773), 1st wife of William Alexander, merchant, 218 n. 1 Alexander, Marione (or Mariane) Louisa (de la Croix) (c. 1695–1773), wife of William Alexander, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 218 n. 1 Alexander, Robert, merchant and bailie of Glasgow, 347 n. 8 Alexander, Robert (1767–1841), son of William Alexander, merchant, 218 n. 1 Alexander, William (c. 1690–1761), Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 218 n. 1 Alexander, William (1729–1819), merchant, son of preceding, 218 and n. 1; JB on, 218 Alexander, William (1755–1842), later Sir William, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, son of preceding, 218 n. 1 Alexander, William, and Sons. See William Alexander and Sons Alexander the Paphlagonian (b. 2nd cent. a.d.), 312, 313 n. 6

Almon, John (1737–1805), printer and bookseller, 323; Speeches, Arguments, and Determinations of the . . . Lords of Council and Session [in the Douglas Cause], 25 n. 191, 323, 326 n. 8 Alnwick, Northumberland, 252, 253 n. 8, 254 n. 5; Angel Inn, 253 n. 9 Alva, Stirlingshire, 216 n. 2 America, 212 n. 7, 313 n. 9; banishment to plantations in, 183 and n. 1; battle of Bloody Marsh, 307 n. 1; Boston, 267 n. 21; battle at Camden, South Carolina, 121 n. 1; Georgia, 307 n. 1, 321 n. 2; battle of Guilford Court House, 121 n. 1; War of Independence, 121 n. 1, 273 n. 2; battle of Long Island, 121 n. 1; New York, 306; St. Andrew Society of New York, 313 n. 9; Ticonderoga, 358 n. 24 Amsterdam, 244–45 n. 1 Anderson, Rev. Walter (d. 1800), historian and Church of Scotland minister of Chirnside, 316, 317 n. 2 Anderson, William, writer in Edinburgh, 310 n. 14; Speeches and Judgement of the Right Honourable The Lords of Council and Session [in the Douglas Cause], 310 n. 14, 318 n. 3, 323, 326 n. 9 Anderson, William (d. 1785), W.S., possibly same as preceding, 326 n. 9 Anglesey, 6th E. of. See Annesley, Richard, 6th E. of Anglesey Anglesey Cause, 332, 333 n. 5 Anhalt-Dessau: JB in, 87 n. 5 Annandale, Dumfriesshire, 87 n. 5 Annandale, 3rd M. of. See Johnstone, George, 3rd M. of Annandale Anne (1665–1714), Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, 51 n. 16 Annesley, Arthur (1744–1816), son of following, 333 n. 5 Annesley, Richard (c. 1691–1761), 6th E. of Anglesey and 7th V. Valentia, 333 n. 5 Antony, Mark (Marcus Antonius) (83–30 b.c.), Roman general and politician, 136 and n. 1 Antrim, County: manufacture of linen in, 361 n. 8 Arbuthnot, Jane (or Jean) (b. 1720), sister of Robert, 126 n. 6

381

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 381

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Arbuthnot, Dr. John (1667–1735), physician and wit, 126 n. 5 Arbuthnot, Mary (Urquhart) (d. 1818), wife of Robert, 126 n. 6; probable reference to, 125 Arbuthnot, Robert (1728–1803), 2nd of Haddo-Rattray, 125–26 n. 5; probable reference to, 125; JB on, 126 n. 5; introduced to SJ, 126 n. 5 Arbuthnot and Guthrie, banking firm, 125–26 n. 5 Archibald, James, labourer, 247, 248 n. 3; trial of, 248 n. 3 Ardmillan, Ayrshire, 348, 349 and nn. 16, 17, 350 n. 2 Argens, M. d’. See Boyer, Jean-Baptiste de, M. d’Argens Argyll, 5th D. of. See Campbell, John, styled M. of Lorne, later 5th D. of Argyll Argyll, family of, 272 Aristotle (384–322 b.c.), Greek philosopher and biologist, Historia Animalium, 291 n. 7 Armadale, Isle of Skye: SJ and JB entertained by Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat at, 222–23 n. 12 Armstrong, David (d. 1813), advocate, 183 n. 1, 224 and n. 4, 225 n. 2, 234–35 n. 1 Armytage, Sir George (1734–83), of Kirklees Park, Bt., 258 n. 2; conversation with JB about Account of Corsica, 17–18, 257 Arniston, Midlothian: house, 69, 70 n. 3; library, 69, 70–71 n. 4, 71, 72 n. 4 Arran, island of, Buteshire, 350 n. 2 Ascham, Roger (1515–68), Scholemaster, 293 n. 24 Atchison, Mr., E. of Hillsborough’s gardener, 360 Atholl, 1st D. of. See Murray, John, 1st D. of Atholl Atholl, 3rd D. of. See Murray, John, 3rd D. of Atholl Auchenskeith, Ayrshire, 47, 61 n. 66 Auchingray, Lanarkshire, 46, 57 nn. 45, 47 Auchinleck, family of, 146 and n. 1, 149 n. 2, 155 and n. 2, 157–58 n. 2, 160, 208, 345; crest a falcon or hawk, 358 n. 13;

history of, in JB’s hand, 162, 163 and n. 1; hypochondria in, 177, 177–78 n. 1; tradition of bread, cheese and ale between church sermons, 200 n. 5 Auchinleck Family Memoirs, 65 n. 86, 255 n. 9 Auchinleck, Lord. See Boswell, Alexander, Lord Auchinleck Auchinleck (house and estate), 53 n. 24, 55 n. 37, 79 n. 10, 81 n. 3, 90–91 n. 4, 101 n. 2, 141 n. 1, 143 n. 2, 145 n. 1, 149 n. 2, 151 n. 1, 155 n. 1, 156 n. 1, 161 n. 5, 162, 169 n. 3, 173, 177 n. 1, 178 n. 3, 201 and n. 3, 255 n. 9, 365; Auchinleck House built, 198 n. 3; lands of Auchinleck a barony, 59 n. 48; the Avenues, 198; Barglachan, 201 and n. 3; Barnsdale, 199 n. 8; Birnieknowe coal works, 201 n. 3; JB dictates Dorando in library, 159; JB makes library a consultation room while writing enthusiastically in favour of entails, 6–7, 156; JB on, 149 n. 2; JB often refers to as ‘romantic’, 198 n. 3; JB enjoys being at after winter session of Court of Session, 142; Braehead farm, 90 n. 1; Broomholm, 154, 154–55 n. 2, 198; Dippol Burn, 198 n. 1, 198–99 n. 2, 199 n. 8; grotto, 198 and n. 1; Gulzie Mailing, 199 n. 8; Hern Gate, 198, 199 n. 4; library at, 49 n. 7, 56 n. 40, 61 nn. 65, 67, 72 n. 4, 106 n. 1, 119 n. 5, 143, 144 nn. 3, 5, 146 n. 2, 149 n. 2, 160, 162 n. 3, 265 n. 9; Lugar Water, 198 and n. 4; 198–99 n. 2; Meadowhead farm, 201–02 n. 4; MM at, 343, 344 n. 16; motto from Horace’s Epistles above front door of Auchinleck House, 227 n. 2; natural bridge, 198, 199 n. 8; the ‘Old Castle’, 198, 198–99 n. 2; the ‘Old Place’ (or ‘Old House’), 197–98, 198 n. 3, 200; garden at the Old Place, 200 and n. 6; Stonebriggs farm, 145 n. 2 Auchinleck parish church, 146 and n. 1, 285 n. 2; each service lasting four hours, 195 n. 1; Auchinleck family vault, 146 n. 1; Auchinleck family ‘loft’, 146 n. 1, 201; Precentor and Clerk to the kirk session, 202 n. 10 Auchinleck village, 188, 201 and n. 4

382

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 382

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Auxerre, France: JB in, 87 n. 5, 268–69 n. 28 Avison, Charles (c. 1710–70), composer, 297 n. 5; Ruth, 297 n. 5 Aylesbury manor, Buckinghamshire, 108 n. 6 Ayr: 101 n. 3, 160 n. 3, 174, 178 and n. 3, 178–79 n. 1, 196–97 n. 1; Lord Auchinleck’s house in, 194 n. 12; JB’s house in Mill Vennel, 194 n. 12; Sarah Bowie’s tavern, 191, 194 and n. 6, 194–95 n. 3, 235 n. 4; dancing assembly at, 184 n. 2; description of town, 189 n. 2; sheriff court, 114; Society of Writers in Ayr, 50 n. 12, 160 n. 3, 162 n. 1; Tolbooth, 191, 191–92 n. 1, 192 n. 4, 192–93 n. 5, 194 n. 1, 196 n. 1 Ayr Bank. See Douglas, Heron and Co. Ayrshire, 172 n. 5, 188 n. 1, 346 n. 3; and JB’s opposition to the bill to reduce number of Lords of Session, 306 n. 4; JB describes as ‘Yorkshire of Scotland’, 306 n. 4; Carrick district, 348; meeting of the gentlemen of the shire, 347, 348 n. 4; politics of in general election of 1768, 223 n. 15, 319 n. 4; politics of in general election of 1774, 70 n. 2, 154 n. 1, 223 n. 15 Bailey, Margery, The Hypochondriack, 62–63 n. 72 Baillie, Hugh (d. 1776), of Monkton, advocate, 128 n. 4; cause of Earl of Morton v. Hugh Baillie of Monkton, 128 n. 4 Baillie, James, writer in Edinburgh, 236 and n. 4 Bainbridge, Mr. (unidentified), 126, 127 n. 4 Balfour, James (1705–95), of Pilrig, advocate, Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations at Edinburgh University, 133 and n. 2; A Delineation of the Nature and Obligation of Morality, 133 n. 2; Philosophical Dissertations, 133 n. 2; Philosophical Essays, 133 n. 2 Balfour, John (1715–95), printer and bookseller, 321 n. 8 Ballantrae, Ayrshire, 349, 350 n. 4 Ballantyne, Capt., attendant of Agnes Kerr at Ayr, 346

Balmuto, Fife, 81 n. 4; Balmuto House, 82 n. 4 Banbridge, County Down, 363, 364 n. 2; described, 364 n. 2; linen manufacture in, 364 n. 2 Bangor, County Down, 355, 358 n. 10 Bankton, Lord. See McDouall, Andrew, Lord Bankton Barber, The, broadside ballad, 297 n. 2 Barclay, David (1682–1769), Quaker, 123–24 n. 5; probable reference to, 123 Barclay, James, bailie of Stewarton, 173 n. 1 Barclay, James, son of preceding, 173–74 n. 1; trial of James Barclay and others (‘the Stewarton rioters’), 4, 38, 172–73, 173–74 n. 1, 194 and n. 1 Barclay, Rev. John (1733–98), founder of Berean sect, 238 n. 2; JB on, 238 n. 2 Barclay (alias Buchanan alias Taylor), Nelly, 194, 195 n. 9, 196 and n. 1 Barclay, Robert (d. 1690), of Urie, Quaker and religious writer, 123–24 n. 5 Baretti, Giuseppe Marc’ Antonio (1719–89), critic and author, 290, 293 n. 24, 296– 97; on JB’s Account of Corsica, 298 n. 9; JB’s correspondence with, 8 and n. 53, 298 n. 9; JB on, 297; argues against Revolution of 1688, 321–22, 322 n. 4; An Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy, 290, 293 n. 24, 297; Dictionary of the Italian and English Languages, 293 n. 24 Barjarg, Lord. See Erskine, James, Lord Barjarg Barnby Moor, Nottinghamshire, 257, 258 n. 8; Rising Stag inn, 258–59 n. 8; The Bell inn, 258–59 n. 8 Barquharrie, Ayrshire, 151 n. 1, 156, 201 Barskimming, Ayrshire, 166 n. 1 Bates, William (d. 1778), composer, 241 n. 7 Bath, 121 n. 1, 285 n. 2; General Hospital, 285 n. 2 Bath, 1st E. of. See Pulteney, William, 1st E. of Bath Beattie, James (1735–1803), poet aand philosopher, 126 n. 5 Beckford, William (1709–70), M.P., 263, 266 n. 20

383

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 383

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Bedford, 4th D. of. See Russell, John, 4th D. of Bedford Bedlay House, Lanarkshire, 141 and n. 6 Belfast, 361 n. 6, 363 n. 17; bridge over River Lagan, 359, 361 n. 3; description of town, 359–60, 361 n. 4 Belford, Northumberland, 252, 252–53 n. 5 Belhaven and Stenton, 5th Lord. See Hamilton, James, 5th Lord Belhaven and Stenton Belhaven brewery, 252 n. 8 Bell, Clementina (Blair) (bap. 1748–1811), wife of following, 350, 351 n. 9 Bell, John (d. 1776), W.S., 351 n. 9 Bell, John, bookseller and printer, partner of Alexander Kincaid, 217 n. 4 Bell, John (1691–1780), of Antermony, traveller and diplomat, 289, 292 n. 17; Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to diverse parts of Asia, 289, 292 n. 17 Ben Lomond, 174 and n. 4 Benalt, 174 n. 9; probable reference to, 174 Bengal, 121 n. 1, 239 n. 5, 281 n. 13; battle of Buxar, 212 n. 7 Bensington, Oxfordshire, 295 n. 8 Bentinck, Charlotte Sophie (or Sophia) (1715–1800), Countess von Aldenburg, wife of Willem, Count Bentinck, 104 n. 2 Bentinck, Jane Martha (Temple) (1672– 1751), Countess of Portland, 104 n. 2 Bentinck, Capt. John Albert (1737–75), naval captain, marine inventor and M.P., 104 n. 2 Bentinck, Maj. Volkier Rudolph (1738– 1820), 103, 103–04 n. 1, 113–14; JB on, 103 Bentinck, Willem (1704–74), C., Count of the Holy Roman Empire, 104 n. 2 Bentinck, William (or Hans Willem) (1649–1709), 1st E. of Portland, 104 n. 2 Bentinck of Varel, Christian Frederick Anthony (1734–68), C., 103 and n. 1, 104–05 n. 2; JB’s correspondence with, 104–05 n. 2 Bentinck of Varel, Maria Catharina van Tuyll van Serooskerken (1743–93), Countess, 105 n. 2

Berean sect, 238 n. 2 Berger, Alexander Malachias (1737–1804), Swedish naturalist, 291 n. 7; Calendarium Florae, 291 n. 7 Berkeley, George (1685–1753), philosopher, 315 n. 4 Berkeley, John (1663–97), 3rd B. Berkely of Stratton, naval officer, 104 n. 2 Berlin: JB visits, 74 n. 12, 159 n. 1; Academy of Sciences, 291 n. 2 Berwick-upon-Tweed, 57 n. 42, 252 and n. 1; and general election of 1768, 252 and n. 3 Bible, 148 n. 2; Corinthians, 164, 166 nn. 6–8; Greek New Testament, 143, 144 n. 5, 146, 153, 155, 162, 167; John, 172 and n. 7; Matthew, 164, 166 n. 9; Romans, 110, 111 n. 7; John, 1st Epistle, 247 Biel, Haddingtonshire, 130 n. 3 Bigge, Thomas Charles (c. 1739–94), 305, 306 n. 3, 308; with JB in Rome, 306 n. 3 Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, 260 n. 4 Bingley, Mrs., innkeeper at Barnby Moor, 259 n. 8 Bird, Francis (1667–1731), sculptor, 296 n. 17 Black Gainoch, Ayrshire, 115–16 n. 8 Blackett, Sir Edward (1719–1804), Bt., M.P., 252 n. 3 Blackstone, Dr. Henry (d. 1776), physician, later vicar of Adderbury, 283, 286–87 n. 8 Blackstone, Sir William (1723–80), 280 n. 1; Commentaries on the Laws of England, 332, 335 n. 14 Blair, Agnes (Alexander), wife of John Blair, merchant in Glasgow, 347 n. 8 Blair, Anne (Blair), of Adamton, mother of Catherine Blair, 32, 35, 126 n. 1, 132 and n. 4, 196–97, 240 n. 1; visits Auchinleck, 197–200 Blair, Anne (Kennedy), wife of John Blair of Dunskey, 351 n. 9 Blair, Catherine (c. 1749–98) (‘the Heiress’, ‘the Princess’), of Adamton, later Lady Maxwell of Monreith, 38, 126, 126–27 n. 1, 132 and n. 4, 154, 190, 201, 237, 239 n. 5, 240, 347 n. 8, 358 n. 13; visits Auchinleck, 197–200; Lord Auchinleck on JB’s courtship of, 31, 149 n. 2, 201 n. 3, 207; JB adores her ‘like

384

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 384

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index a divinity’, 33, 201 n. 3; JB’s courtship of, 32–35, 149 n. 2, 196–200, 208–09 n. 7, 209, 214, 215 n. 2, 221, 229, 237; JB happy to be free of, 249; JB indifferent as to her, 227, 230; JB proposes and is rejected, 239, 239–40 n. 1; thinks JB has no serious intentions, 240 n. 1; and William Fullarton of Rosemount, 237–39; and Gilmour, 35, 214, 215 n. 2, 221, 229, 238 Blair, David, of Adamton, 126 n. 1, 132 n. 4 Blair, David (d. 1753), of Adamton, grandson of preceding, 126 n. 1 Blair, Rev. Hugh (1718–1800), 111 n. 3, 139, 285, 288 n. 24, 336; A Critical Dissertation on the poems of Ossian, the Son of Fingal, 285, 288 n. 24; Sermons, 111 n. 3 Blair, Janet, cousin of Catherine, 347 n. 8 Blair, John, merchant in Glasgow, cousin of Catherine, 347 n. 8 Blair, John, merchant in Glasgow, uncle of Catherine, 347 n. 8 Blair, John (d. 1772), of Dunskey, 118, 119 n. 2, 127, 233 n. 4, 350 Blair, Magdalene (Blair), wife of William Scott Blair, 132 n. 3 Blair, Margaret (Boswell), 126 n. 1 Blair, Robert (1741–1811), of Avonton, advocate, later Lord President of the Court of Session, 124 n. 3; probable reference to, 124 Blair, William Scott (1682–?), of Blair, advocate, 132 n. 3 Bland, Elizabeth (Dalrymple) (1721–1816), wife of following, 47, 64 n. 79 Bland, Lt.-Gen. Humphrey (?1686–1763), 64 n. 79 Blount, Charles (1654–93), author and freethinker, 47, 64 n. 82; wishes to marry deceased wife’s sister, 47, 64–65 n. 84; Oracles of Reason, 47, 64 n. 83, 65 n. 84 Bluitt, William (d. 1798), innkeeper in York, 255, 256 n. 2 Bodley, Sir Thomas (1545–1613), 289, 292 n. 11 Bolingbroke, 1st V. See St. John, Henry, 1st V. Bolingbroke

Bolingbroke, 2nd V. See St. John, Frederick, 2nd V. Bolingbroke Borthwick, parish of, Midlothian, 73 n. 9; church, 71–72 n. 2 Bosville, Diana (Wentworth) (1722–95), wife of Godfrey, 222 n. 11, 273 n. 2; JB on, 273 n. 2 Bosville, Elizabeth Diana (1748–89), dau. of Godfrey Bosville, later wife of Sir Alexander Macdonald, 271; JB considers marrying, 29, 31–32, 34, 149 n. 2, 221, 222 n. 11, 222–23 n. 12, 260, 273 n. 2 Bosville, Godfrey (1717–84), of Gunthwaite, 222 n. 11, 316, 321, 322 n. 1; regarded by JB as chief of Boswell family, 273 n. 1; JB dines with, 222 nn. 11, 12, 271, 273 n. 2, 331; JB on, 273 n. 1 Bosville, Julia (1754–1833), dau. of preceding, later Lady Ward, 273 n. 2; JB on, 273 n. 2 Bosville, William (1745–1813), son of Godfrey, 273 nn. 1, 2 Boswell, Alexander (1707–82), Lord Auchinleck, JB’s father, 9, 23, 27, 31, 47, 49 n. 7, 52 n. 20, 55 n. 36, 62 n. 70, 65 nn. 85–86, 69–70 n. 2, 72 n. 6, 77, 81 n. 3, 81–82 n. 4, 85 n. 2, 88, 90 n. 1, 90–91 n. 4, 94 n. 3, 95 n. 1, 122 and n. 5, 123 n. 4, 128, 135, 136 and n. 8, 137 nn. 3, 6, 8, 138 n. 12, 140 n. 10, 141 and n. 2, 142, 143 and n. 2, 145, 146 n. 2, 151 n. 1, 155 and n. 2, 156 n. 1, 158 n. 3, 159 n. 1, 160, 162, 166–67, 170, 176, 178 n. 3, 183–84 n. 1, 186, 191–92 n. 1, 194 n. 1, 195, 196 and n. 1, 198 and n. 1, 199, 207, 208 and n. 7, 209, 216, 223, 227 n. 2, 229–30, 232, 242, 245, 250, 253, 254 n. 4, 255 n. 9, 259 n. 11, 270, 271 n. 3, 272, 317 n. 2, 319 and n. 4, 325, 331 n. 4, 343–44, 365, 367 n. 15; possible reference to, 71, 72 n. 6, 125 and n. 4; and Rev. Edward Aitken as boyhood tutor, 255 n. 9; at Arniston, 207–09; and Auchinleck estate, 55 n. 37, 198 n. 1, 199 n. 8, 227 n. 2; builds Auchinleck House, 198 n. 3; and Ayrshire politics in 1774 general election, 70 n. 2; Claud Boswell studies law with, 2, 82 n. 4; keen that JB become an advocate, 1; JB’s

385

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 385

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index correspondence with, 143 n. 2, 155 n. 2, 159 n. 1, 208 n. 4, 215 n. 1, 250 n. 1, 270, 271 n. 7, 314; and JB’s courtship of Catherine Blair, 31, 126–27 n. 1, 149 n. 2, 201 n. 3, 207; and JB’s courtship of Mary Ann Boyd, 343, 363, 364 n. 1; and JB’s courtship of Belle de Zuylen, 215 n. 1; displeased with JB, 127, 161 n. 10; gives JB account of election law in Scotland, 207; sends JB to Glasgow University to get away from foolishness, 52 nn. 20, 21; JB studies law with, 1–3, 82 n. 4; and JB’s marriage to MM, 37 and n. 262, 210 n. 3; holds low opinion of JB, 22 n. 169; pleased with JB, 123, 124 n. 7, 149, 160; relationship with JB, 48, 143, 149, 210 n. 3, 232–33, 314; rewards JB for every ode of Horace memorized, 140 n. 6; brothers of, 95 n. 1, 177–78 n. 1; career of, 1, 123 n. 4; death of, 224 n. 2; reads Don Quixote, 145; in Douglas Cause, 27–29, 324, 327 n. 21; studies Memorials in Douglas Cause, 141–42, 145; and Robert Dundas of Arniston the younger, 69–70 n. 2, 207, 209–10; Edinburgh house of, 30 n. 215, 76 n. 6, 103 n. 1, 141 n. 2, 144 n. 1, 366; at Edinburgh University, 255 n. 9, 272, 276 n. 13; deed of entail of, 157–58 n. 2; supports Sir Alexander Fergusson in 1774 general election, 70 n. 2; in Holland, 143 n. 2; confrontation with SJ triggered by coin of Oliver Cromwell, 199 n. 9; presides over court of justices of peace at Auchinleck, 175, 175–76 n. 1, 197; resignation of Justiciary gown, 94 n. 3; Rev. John Key as boyhood tutor, 255 n. 9; at Lainshaw, 343; studies law at Leiden University, 276 n. 13; marriage to Elizabeth Boswell, 366; medal collection of, 198, 199 n. 9; on Northern Circuit, 90 n. 4; requests spawn of perch from Sir Alexander Dick, 55 n. 37; never uneasy on religious matters, 167; on Southern Circuit, 183–84 n. 1, 191–92 n. 1, 196 and n. 1; suffers from total retention of urine, 207, 208 and n. 4; creates nominal and fictitious votes, 70 n. 2; on Western Circuit, 4, 57–58 n. 47; Observations on the election law of Scotland, 208 n. 1

Boswell, Sir Alexander (1775–1822), son of JB, 82 n. 4, 140 n. 6, 280 n. 2, 296 n. 16 Boswell, Andrew, 10th of Balmuto, 81 n. 4 Boswell, Anna (Hamilton) (d. 1711), wife of David Boswell, 6th Laird of Auchinleck, 48, 65 n. 86, 177 n. 1 Boswell, Anne (or Anna) (Cramond) (1710–77), wife of Dr. John Boswell, 95 n. 1, 141 n. 3 Boswell, Anne (Irvine) (d. 1841), wife of Claud, 81 n. 4, 347 n. 8 Boswell, Charles (1762–64), illegitimate son of JB, 36, 87 n. 5 Boswell, Claud (1743–1824), of Balmuto, advocate, later Claud Irvine Boswell, Lord Balmuto, 2, 80, 81–82 n. 4, 88, 92, 188, 196 and n. 1, 197–200, 232, 240, 346, 348; JB on, 348, 349 n. 15 Boswell, David. See Boswell, Thomas David Boswell, David (d. 1661), 5th Laird of Auchinleck, 126 n. 1, 146 n. 1 Boswell, David (1640–1713), 6th Laird of Auchinleck, 50 n. 15, 65 n. 86, 158 n. 2 Boswell, David (d. 1493), 2nd of Balmuto, 81–82 n. 4 Boswell, Elizabeth (d. 1799), later 2nd wife of Lord Auchinleck, 82 n. 4, 210 n. 3, 349 n. 15 Boswell, Lady Elizabeth (Bruce) (d. 1734), JB’s paternal grandmother, 89 n. 2, 143 n. 2, 313 n. 9 Boswell, Euphemia (Erskine) (c. 1718–66), JB’s mother, 76 n. 7, 137 n. 3, 210 n. 3, 246, 254 n. 4, 306 n. 5; austere Calvinism of, 145 n. 1; influence of Methodists on, 259 n. 10 Boswell, James (d. 1618), 4th Laird of Auchinleck, 155 and n. 2, 198 n. 3 Boswell, James (1672–1749), 7th Laird of Auchinleck, JB’s paternal grandfather, 49 n. 7, 64 n. 81, 81 n. 4, 89 n. 2, 106 n. 1, 143 n. 2, 150, 151 n. 1, 155 nn. 2, 2, 157 n. 2; JB feels affinity with, 177 n. 1; depression of, 177 n. 1 Boswell, James (JB) General. Visits Adamton, 190, 197, 215 n. 2, 239–40 n. 1; allowance from father, 137 n. 6; and fondness for Anglican

386

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 386

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index form of church service, 238 n. 2; and/at Arniston, 15–16, 27, 69, 69–70 n. 2, 71, 72 n. 2, 75, 77 n. 7, 97 n. 3, 207, 208 and n. 2, 209; on value of having many attachments, 62–63 n. 72, 216; and/at Auchinleck, 1–3, 6–7, 15–16, 23, 32–33, 45, 69–70 n. 2, 76 n. 4, 82 n. 4, 136 n. 7, 137 n. 9, 140 n. 15, 142 n. 5, 142–70, 173–78, 188, 193–94 n. 5, 195, 197–201, 243 n. 8, 259 n. 11, 343, 358 n. 13; on former respectful notions of authors, 245; feels awe for others ceasing, 105, 138–39; on desire to become Laird of Auchinleck, 332; becomes Laird of Auchinleck, 336 n. 21; and/in Ayr, 4 n. 17, 47, 60 n. 60, 61 n. 65, 188, 190–91, 191–92 n. 1, 194 and nn. 1, 12, 195–96, 346–47, 365; on Ayrshire, 172 n. 5; and Ayrshire politics, 70 n. 2, 221, 223 n. 15; attends balls, 17, 240, 245; and use of the word ‘barber’, 296, 297 n. 2; and Baretti, 293 n. 24, 296–97, 321–22; assumes style of Baron during German travels, 59 n. 48; and fondness for Gay’s Beggar’s Opera, 249 n. 6; in Belfast, 359–60, 365; book collection of, 51 n. 19, 133 n. 2, 144 nn. 5, 6, 312–13 n. 3, 326 nn. 8, 9, 335 n. 14; and Dr. John Boswell, 95 and n. 1, 221, 243, 248; plays brag, 356; on story of brownies, 220–21; intends writing to James Bruce about perch, 46, 55 n. 37; and friendship with Rev. Samuel Caldwell at The Hague, 356–57 n. 4; use of term ‘Captain’, 99 n. 8; and/on playing cards, 207, 208 n. 3; and song ‘’Carrickfergus’, 356, 358 nn. 12, 13; and Catholicism, 257–58, 259 n. 11; and childhood timidity, 247, 249 n. 7; attends church twice some Sundays, 110, 111 n. 4, 186, 195; and Basil Cochrane, 139, 140 n. 10; attends concert in Edinburgh, 33, 208 n. 7; at Covent Garden Theatre, 241 n. 7; and Dalblair, 155 and n. 1, 160, 161 n. 10, 174; and friendship with Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, 90–92 n. 4; and deists, 258, 259 n. 12; and friendship with GD, 229 n. 5; suffers from depression in Utrecht, 74 n. 13, 135 n. 1, 356–57 n. 4; and friendship with Sir Alexander

Dick, 96 n. 3; and friendship with Sir John Dick, 153 n. 2; describes digging machine at Henley, 294; feels could easily relapse into dissipation, 246; dogs of, 263, 268–69 n. 28; feels like Don Quixote, 251; in Donaghadee, 351–59, 365; on drink making men appear numerous, 345; and drinking, 131 n. 4; and Drumlanrig, 178, 181; in Dublin, 358 n. 13, 364 n. 1, 365; in Dumfries, 181, 183–86; attends dancing assemblies at Dumfries, 183, 184 n. 2, 185–86; and Robert Dundas of Arniston the younger, 15, 27, 38, 69, 69–70 n. 2, 71, 72 n. 7, 72–73 n. 8, 75, 76 n. 4, 85, 97 n. 3, 103, 122 and n. 2, 128, 209, 240, 324; Dutch journal of, 168, 169 n. 6, 169–70 n. 7; at Edinburgh University, 1, 87 n. 5, 113–14 n. 1, 240–41 n. 5, 287 n. 12; feels prejudices against Edinburgh worn off, 240; education of, 1, 2 and nn. 6, 9, 3, 52 n. 21, 82 n. 4, 87 n. 5, 113–14 n. 1, 240–41 n. 5, 287 n. 12, 291 n. 9, 362 n. 12; emotional state of, 10–11, 31, 35, 69, 71, 77, 83, 85, 95, 99, 110–11, 114, 118, 122–23, 126, 128–30, 132, 135–36, 139, 141–43, 146–47, 149–50, 163, 167–68, 170–71, 178, 198, 201, 221, 226, 230, 232, 257, 260, 284, 290, 344, 346, 349–50, 356–57 n. 4; and ‘English Episcopal’ circle of friendships, 239 n. 2; in favour of entails, 156, 157–58 n. 2; and friendship with AE, 84–85 n. 2; feels established, 216; and executions, 39, 249 and n. 1, 262, 265 n. 8; on the hurt of familiarity, 46, 55 n. 31; on family hypochondria (depression), 172, 177; feels free of fancies, 212; on men of fancy, 45; and father, 48, 143, 149, 210 n. 3, 232–33, 314, 323; and flute lessons, 362–63 n. 16; travels in France, 87 n. 5, 268–69 n. 28; as freemason, 95 n. 1; travels in Germany, 59 n. 48, 74 n. 12, 87 n. 5, 104 n. 2, 159 n. 1, 166 n. 10, 179 n. 2, 180 n. 4, 222 n. 11; and fear of ghosts, 249 n. 7; and Glasgow, 4, 14, 45, 57 n. 47; at Glasgow University, 1, 52 n. 21, 291 n. 9; on nesting of goldfinches, 352, 354 n. 23; and friendship with Hon.

387

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 387

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Alexander Gordon, 122 n. 3; as curator of Gordon of Crogo’s daughters, 181 n. 17; meets William Guthrie, 19, 272; sings song ‘The Hamilton Cause’ in Parliament House, 105; plays hand ball, 200; health of, 33, 38, 69 n. 2, 131 and n. 3, 132 n. 1, 136, 137–38 n. 9, 138 n. 15, 142, 146 n. 1, 154, 156, 195, 221, 233 and n. 5, 236, 280, 304 n. 1, 314 n. 1, 319, 365; and tour to the Hebrides with SJ, 92 n. 4, 95 n. 1, 97 n. 3, 102–03 n. 4, 110 n. 7, 126 n. 5, 153 n. 1, 198 n. 1, 199 nn. 2, 9, 216 n. 1, 223 n. 12, 283 n. 36, 288 n. 23; in Holland, 104 n. 2, 107 n. 1, 110 n. 7, 135 n. 1, 143 n. 2, 356–57 n. 4; and David Hume, 16, 22, 73–74 n. 12, 105, 107–08 n. 3, 111, 310, 311 nn. 5, 8, 315, 316 n. 3, 318 n. 8; on pleasure of idleness, 45, 49 n. 7; in Ireland, 351–65; thinks Irish jaunt madness, 351; pleased to hear Irish tone, 355; travels in Italy, 49–50 n. 9, 50 n. 10, 153 n. 2, 177 n. 11, 261 n. 6, 263 and n. 2, 267 n. 25, 293 n. 24, 297, 306 n. 3, 318 n. 8, 331 n. 4, 362 n. 15, 362– 63 n. 16; moves to James’s Court, Lawnmarket, 108 n. 3; and friendship with SJ, 276–77, 280 n. 2; on SJ’s criticism of Latin in law thesis, 46, 56 n. 40; on SJ’s use of language, 283–84; on SJ’s Rambler essays as solace, 74 n. 13; and friendship with JJ, 87 n. 5; and Lord Kames, 111, 112–13 n. 18, 208 n. 7, 242, 324; and Lainshaw, 170, 171 and n. 1, 172–73, 343–46, 358 n. 13, 365–66; and/in London, 17–19, 27–29, 36, 45, 52 n. 21, 85 n. 2, 87 n. 5, 91 n. 4, 97 n. 3, 98 n. 6, 108 n. 6, 119 n. 2, 120 n. 1, 128 n. 4, 135 n. 1, 138 n. 12, 141 n. 2, 185 n. 2, 194 n. 12, 213–14 n. 5, 214 n. 6, 222 n. 6, 241 n. 7, 249, 256 n. 7, 259 nn. 11, 12, 260–63, 264 n. 3, 269 and n. 33, 270–72, 273 nn. 1, 2, 282 n. 26, 293 n. 19, 296, 297 and n. 2, 298 and nn. 8, 9, 299, 302–03, 303–04 n. 2, 304–12, 314, 315 and n. 4, 316, 317 and n. 2, 318–20, 321 and n. 2, 322–25, 331 and n. 4, 332, 335–36 n. 20, 336–37; and friendship with Lady Elizabeth Macfarlane, 86 n.

2; conversations with Lord Mansfield, 27–28, 39, 323–25, 331–32; and friendship with Lord Marischal, 179–180 n. 2; argues for metempsychosis, 163–64; and Methodism, 257, 259 n. 10; military aspirations of, 264 n. 3; and Moffat, 30; and Lord Monboddo, 17, 49 n. 7, 101, 102–03 n. 4, 122, 123–24 n. 5, 135, 236, 237 n. 1, 240, 324; behaves badly to MM, 345–46; childhood dependence on mother, 249 n. 7; dines at Newbattle Abbey, 210; in Newcastle, 253 and n. 3, 254 n. 5; plays nine pins, 200; on the arts of obliging, 349; plays at odds and evens, 252, 253 n. 7; and friendship with Gen. Oglethorpe, 307 n. 1; and green and gold outfit, 253, 254–55 n. 7; in Oxford, 39, 153 n. 1, 218 n. 1, 276– 80, 283–84, 285 and n. 2, 285–86 n. 3, 288–90, 292 nn. 12, 16; on excellency of Oxford University, 284; and Paoli, 11–12, 19, 46, 52 n. 21, 53 n. 24, 77, 91–92 n. 4, 226, 229 n. 6, 257, 272, 276 n. 12, 283, 298 n. 9, 300 n. 3, 316 n. 1; in Paris, 263, 267 n. 25, 280 n. 2, 318 n. 8; with pistol in coach, 59–60 n. 55; political ambitions, 2 n. 8, 9, 195, 195– 96 n. 4, 345, 346 n. 3; travels to Potsdam with Lord Marischal, 179 n. 2, 180 n. 4; sees Percivall Pott, 319; childhood attendance at Presbyterian church services, 111–12 n. 9, 257, 259 n. 9; fondness for expression ‘rampaging’ and derivatives, 200 n. 1; on works by Raphael, 49–50 n. 9; dreams of Raybould under sentence of death, 247; visits Raybould in Tolbooth prison, 8, 243, 247–48; attends Raybould’s execution, 249; religious beliefs of, 71, 73–74 n. 12, 111, 136, 209, 311 n. 5; and religious doubts, 73–74 n. 12, 315 n. 4, 357 n. 4; use of expression ‘retenue’, 75, 76 n. 5; in Rome, 255 n. 7, 261 n. 6, 263 and n. 2, 267 n. 25, 306 n. 3; meets Rousseau, 11; on Salic law, 157 n. 2, 309; on Richard Savage’s claim to be son of Countess of Macclesfield, 322 n. 2; on seasickness, 350; on self-analysis, 221; selfreflection, 97, 110, 136, 139, 142–43,

388

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 388

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index 152, 154, 166, 173, 188, 196, 200, 212, 218, 236, 257, 260, 290, 296; effect of lack of sleep on, 180 n. 8; feels like Socrates, 97, 98–99 n. 7; visits Stair, 196; and friendship with Houston Stewart-Nicolson, 134 n. 1; plays at drawing straws, 252; on social subordination, 318 n. 2; and friendship with WJT, 85 n. 2, 87 n. 5; attends theatre in Edinburgh, 33, 51 n. 20, 208 n. 7, 212–13, 230 and n. 6, 249; suffers from ingrown toenails, 154 and n. 1, 298; on Union of 1707, 12–14; and/in Utrecht, 74 n. 13, 87–88 n. 7, 91 n. 4, 104 n. 2, 135 n. 1, 143 n. 2, 144 n. 5, 155 n. 2, 169 n. 5, 179 n. 2, 214 n. 1, 250 n. 1, 270, 282 n. 34, 313 n. 10, 314–15 n. 3, 315 n. 5, 356–57 n. 4; at Utrecht University, 2 and n. 9, 360, 362 n. 12; meets Voltaire, 53 n. 23; and John Wilkes, 39, 108–09 n. 6, 263, 267 n. 25; mistaken for Wilkes, 278–79; and portrait by George Willison, 255 n. 7; in York, 17–18, 255–57 Courtship, Marriage and Sexual Behaviour. Affairs with actresses, 249–50 n. 6; courtship of Catherine Blair, 32–35, 149 n. 2, 196–200, 208–09 n. 7, 221, 229– 30, 237, 239, 239–40 n. 1, 249; father’s views on Catherine Blair, 31, 126–27 n. 1, 149 n. 2, 210 n. 3, 207; considers marrying Elizabeth Diana Bosville, 29, 31–32, 34, 149 n. 2; courtship of Mary Ann Boyd, 37, 343, 344 n. 9, 345, 358 n. 13, 364 n. 1, 365; use of condoms, 261, 261–62 n. 10, 263; Mrs. Dodds, 30 and nn. 211, 215, 31–33, 35, 36 and n. 259, 75, 77 n. 9, 83, 85, 88, 89 and n. 5, 95, 100, 105, 111, 113, 120, 121 (possible reference to), 123, 125–26, 128–29, 132 n. 4, 133–35, 136 nn. 6–8, 139, 140 nn. 14, 15, 148–49 n. 2, 156, 167 and n. 2, 179–80 n. 2, 211, 214, 287 n. 13; hurt to think of former intrigues of Mrs. Dodds, 128, 129 n. 1, 131–32, 135; writes letter seeking to end affair with Mrs. Dodds, 141, 142 and nn. 5, 8; reflects comfortably on emancipation from Mrs. Dodds, 142–43; renews affair with Mrs. Dodds,

235–38, 242; terminates affair with Mrs. Dodds, 243 n. 8; attacks of gonorrhoea, 33, 38, 69 n. 2, 131 and n. 3, 132 n. 1, 136, 138 n. 15, 142, 146 n. 1, 154, 156, 221, 236, 280, 304 n. 1, 314 n. 1, 319, 365; affair with Jean Heron, 181, 183 n. 10; fond of Elizabeth Laurie, 185, 186; sexual attraction towards Lady Elizabeth Macfarlane, 86 n. 2; fond of Jean Montgomerie, 172, 176; courtship of MM, 37 and n. 262, 38–39, 348, 349 and n. 10, 350–65; marriage to MM, 89–90 n. 1, 96 n. 2, 108 n. 3, 120 n. 1, 144 n. 5, 146 n. 2, 162 n. 3, 171 n. 1, 210 n. 3, 254 n. 5, 366; tries oil as a form of prevention of venereal infection, 272; prostitutes, 31, 33–34, 36, 38, 131, 221, 226–27, 251, 261, 263, 269 n. 33, 271–72, 293, 296, 297 n. 2; dances with Margaret (‘Peggy’) Stewart, 134 n. 1; courtship of Belle de Zuylen, 29 and n. 206, 31, 34–36, 38, 76 n. 5, 214, 214–15 n. 1, 250 n. 1, 260, 269–70, 310, 311 n. 1 Law Practice. Admitted advocate, 3; relishes status as advocate, 10–11, 260; attends circuit court at Ayr, 4 n. 17, 60 n. 60, 191, 191–92 n. 2, 194 and n. 1, 196 and n. 1; practice mainly relating to civil causes, 4; finds many civil causes interesting, 6; retains papers in certain criminal cases, 4; attends circuit court at Dumfries, 183, 183–84 n. 1; in ‘Election Causes’, 38, 205, 205–07 n. 2, 212, 218, 219–20 n. 2, 221, 221–22 n. 5, 225 and n. 1, 226 n. 4; pleads cause in ‘spirit of bold eloquence’, 101; encouraged by remarks from judges, 10, 70 n. 2, 92; moves to English Bar, 335–36 n. 20; fees earned, 3, 8 and n. 54, 11, 124 n. 7, 138, 277, 281 n. 17, 343; writes enthusiastically in favour of entails, 6–7, 156, 157 n. 1; enthusiasm for feudal system, 6, 80 n. 2; pleads ‘with force’ at criminal trial, 113; attends circuit court at Glasgow, 4, 57 n. 47; humorous legal papers drafted by, 10, 97 n. 3; presents impudent paper in contempt of court case, 159 n. 8; praised for speech in first appearance before Inner House of Court

389

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 389

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index of Session, 9, 80 n. 2; consults SJ in John Hastie case, 7; complains about labour, 10, 120; finds law fatiguing, 10, 218; sees law as being a form of fleecing poor lieges, 89, 92 n. 6; feels settled as lawyer, 11, 277; overpowered with legal papers to write, 120; applies for appointment as Lord of Session, 93–94 n. 2; on writing papers for clients, 309; entertained in Parliament House in hurry of business, 10, 217; enjoys early years of practice, 8; ‘pressed’ into law, 8; appointed Recorder of Carlisle, 336 n. 20; engaged in Scottish appeals to House of Lords, 336 n. 20 Trials, Causes and Consultations. James Archibald, 247, 248 n. 3; Barclay v. Ross, 123, 123–24 n. 5; James Barclay and others (‘the Stewarton rioters’), 4, 38, 172–73, 173–74 n. 1, 194 and n. 1; Nelly Barclay (alias Buchanan alias Taylor), appeal of, 194, 195 n. 9, 196 and n. 1; John Brown v. Caesar Parr, 6, 63 n. 76, 151, 151–52 n. 1, 345; Rev. Mr. Richard Brown, Minister of Lochmaben v. Heritors, or Kindly Tenants, of Lochmaben, 227–28 n. 2, 236 n. 5; Hugh Cairncross v. William Heatly and Others, 6, 9, 80–81 n. 2, 138; Countess of Caithness v. Countess Fife and Earl Fife and Sir John Sinclair, 72–73 n. 8, 77, 79–80 n. 14; Campbell v. Houston, 89 n. 3, 158 n. 3; David Cubbieson of Blackcraig v. John Cubbieson, 10, 92, 92–93 n. 1, 97–98 n. 3; Sir Alexander Dick v. The Earl of Abercorn, 10, 96–97 n. 3; John Donaldson, 23, 158–59 n. 8; James Gilkie v. William Wallace, 118 and n. 3, 149, 149–50 n. 2, 150; Earl of Glencairn and William Paterson v. The Magistrates and Town Council of Kilmarnock, 168–69 n. 2; Sir Alexander Grant of Dalvey v. Lt.-Col. Hector Munro, 212 n. 7; John Guthrie and Others v. James Blair and Others, 235 n. 2; John Guthrie and Others v. Magistrates of Prestwick, 194–95 n. 3, 237 n. 1; James Haddow, 4 n. 17, 60 n. 60; William Harris, 4; John Hastie v. Patrick Campbell of Knap and Others, 7;

Robert Hay, 4, 38, 99 and n. 1, 100 and n. 1; David Henderson of Stempster v. Sir John Sinclair of Mey, 218, 219 n. 2, 226 n. 4, 236 n. 1; John Hinton v. Alexander Donaldson and Others, 73 n. 8, 314 n. 1; Archibald Johnston v. Thomas and John Houy, 114, 114–15 n. 1; James Johnston & Co. v. Quintin Hamilton and John McAulay, 79 n. 10; Robert Johnston and others (‘the Galloway rioters’), 4, 38, 155 n. 2, 184 n. 1, 190, 191 and n. 7, 191–92 n. 1; William Johnston v. John Paxton, 6 n. 38, 47, 61–62 n. 70; Hugh Kerr v. Margaret and Lilias Thomson, 10, 79 n. 11, 80 n. 1, 163, 164–66 n. 4; John Logan v. James McHarg and James McHarg, 6 n. 38, 114, 115–18 n. 8; Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Gairloch v. Hector Mackenzie, younger, of Gairloch, and Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle, 6–7, 90 n. 2, 156, 156–57 n. 1, 158 n. 2, 162; Adam Miller and Others v. Robert Boyd, 175–76 n. 1; Thomas Millar v. George Glasgow and Samuel Stewart, 122 n. 5; William Milne v. Captain Alexander Mckenzie, 206 n. 2; Earl of Morton v. Hugh Baillie of Monkton, 128 n. 4; Earl of Morton v. Heretors of Ratho, 128 n. 4; Walter Ogilvie of Clova and William Douglas of Bridgetown v. James Coutts of Hallgreen, 218, 219–20 n. 2, 221–22 n. 5, 225 n. 1, 226 n. 4; John and Samuel Osborn (or Osburn) v. Earl of Dumfries, 6, 101, 101–02 n. 3; Burgesses v. Magistrates of Prestwick, 194–95 n. 3; Duke of Queensberry and Robert Irvine of Woodhall v. John Carruthers of Hardrigs, 234, 234–35 n. 1; John Raybould, 8, 10, 38, 224 and n. 5, 225, 225–26 n. 2; John Reid, trial in 1766, 4, 38, 46, 57–58 n. 47, 122–23 n. 4, trial in 1774, 58 n. 47; Jean Robertson v. James Storrie, 7; Poor Robert Ross v. Magistrates of Inverness, 83, 83–84 n. 1; George Skene v. George Graham, 206–07 n. 2; George Skene of Skene and William Milne of Bonnytown v. David Wallace, 218, 219–20 n. 2, 221–22 n. 5, 225 n.

390

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 390

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index 1, 226 n. 4; John Smith v. Archibald Steel, 7, 39, 147, 147–48 n. 1, 332, 333–34 n. 9; William Smith v. Elisabeth Moodie, 242–43 n. 5; William Stewart (alias James Smith), 110–11, 112 nn. 10, 17, 113 and nn. 2–4; Countess of Sutherland v. Sir Robert Gordon, 121 n. 1; Joseph Taylor, 4; Poor David Warnock v. Sir James Maxwell of Pollok, 10, 139, 140 n. 8 Writings: Books, pamphlets and broadsides: Account of Corsica, 1, 11–19, 38, 54–55 n. 29, 57 n. 43, 58–59 n. 48, 61 nn. 62, 67, 111, 112 n. 14, 159, 208–09 n. 7, 260, 268 n. 28, 276 n. 12, 277, 283, 287 n. 13, 297, 298 n. 9, 299, 304 n. 1, 306 n. 4, 307 n. 1, 315 n. 5, 316 nn. 1–3, 360; main aims of, 15, 19; Sir George Armytage on, 17–18, 257; JB notes books to consult in Glasgow, 14–15, 45, 51 n. 16; JB applies to friends abroad for materials, 14, 231 n. 2; JB collects materials for, 145; JB’s involvement in production and distribution of, 244 n. 1, 245 n. 2; JB revises proofs of, 17, 231 n. 3; JB’s quotations not always entirely accurate, 16, 53 n. 22; JB’s writing of, 16–17, 144–47, 149 n. 2, 150, 153–56, 162–63, 167, 170, 197 n. 1, 200; James Burgh on, 299, 301 n. 5; Journal most valuable part of, 17, 19; underlying theme liberty, 12; praise for, 270 n. 1, 305–06 n. 1; printing of, 17; publication of, 17, 244 and n. 1, 245 and n. 2; reviews of, 18–19, 244–45 n. 1, 305–06 n. 1, 310, 311 n. 2; review by William Guthrie, 275–76 n. 10; sale of, 18; translations of, 18, 244–45 n. 1, 311 n. 1 British Essays in Favour of the Brave Corsicans, 304–05 n. 3, 308 n. 5, 319–20 n. 1 Collection of Original Poems by Scotch Gentlemen (JB’s contributions to), 134 n. 1 Critical Strictures on Elvira (with GD and AE), 85 n. 2 Decision of the Court of Session upon the Question of Literary Property, 73 n. 8 Disputatio Juridica Ad Tit. X. Lib. XXXIII. Pand. De Supellectile Legata, 3, 56 n. 40, 331 n. 4

Dorando, A Spanish Tale, 38; JB interprets as allegory of Douglas Cause, 23, 158–59 n. 8; writing and publication of, 23, 156, 158–59 n. 8, 162 and n. 2, 167, 178 and n. 3, 178–79 n. 1 The Douglas Cause (ballad), 24, 188, 189–90 n. 3 Essence of the Douglas Cause, 24–26, 38, 235, 279, 329 n. 42; JB on legal principle for ascertaining birthright of individual, 25–26; JB ridicules argument for Duke of Hamilton with regard to child Sholto, 26; publication of, 274 n. 7; review by William Guthrie, 26, 275 n. 10 Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 19, 102–03 n. 4, 222–23 n. 12, 244 n. 1 Letter to Lord Braxfield, 94 n. 3, 188 n. 6 Letter to the People of Scotland, 93–94 n. 2, 102 n. 4, 306 n. 4 Letters of the Right Honourable Lady Jane Douglas, 25 n. 191, 27–28, 38; review by William Guthrie, 27, 275 n. 10 Letters between the Honourable Andrew Erskine, and James Boswell, Esq., 85 n. 2 Life of Samuel Johnson, 19, 39, 56 n. 40, 74 n. 13, 85 n. 2, 102–03 n. 4, 144 n. 6, 160 n. 3, 244 n. 1, 280 n. 2, 282 n. 34, 291 n. 8, 307 n. 1, 308 nn. 1, 4, 311–12 n. 9, 312 n. 11, 315 n. 5, 316 n. 1, 322 n. 2, 337 n. 1 Verses in the Character of a Corsican, 63 n. 74 View of the Edinburgh Theatre, 52 n. 20 Writings: Magazine and newspaper articles: ‘Authentick Account of General Paoli’s Tour to Scotland, Autumn 1771’, 52 n. 21, 229 n. 6; report of contempt of court case against newspaper publishers, 159 n. 8; on Corsica, 15; on Douglas Cause, 23, 158–59 n. 8; ‘The Hamilton Cause’, 22–23, 105, 105–07 n. 1, 110, 111 nn. 1–2, 122, 129; ‘Hypochondriack’ essays (1777–83), 49 n. 7, 62–63 n. 72, 64–65 n. 84, 169–70 n. 7, 216 n. 2, 265 n. 8; on trips to Irish country seats, 366 n. 2; ‘A Matrimonial Thought: To Matthew Henderson, Esq.’, 98 n. 6; ‘Memoires of

391

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 391

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index James Boswell, Esq.’, 24 and n. 189, 330 n. 52; letter attacking Thomas Miller of Barskimming, 123 n. 4; on Paoli’s visit to Scotland, 91–92 n. 4; Prologue for opening of Theatre Royal, 213 n. 5, 325, 330 nn. 49, 50, 52; ‘Rampager’ essays, 200 n. 1; letter on executions at Tyburn, 265 nn. 8, 10, 11; Verses in the Character of a Corsican, 63 n. 74; on meeting of Yorkshire freeholders, 306 n. 4 Writings: Journals (including memoranda and notes) quoted or referred to in Introduction, footnotes and other editorial notes: 2 and n. 7, 5 and nn. 31–34, 7 and nn. 47, 49, 8 and n. 52, 11 and n. 82, 13 and nn. 95–102, 22 nn. 170–71, 25 and n. 192, 29 and n. 208, 30 n. 215, 45, 48 n. 1, 49–50 n. 9, 50 n. 10, 55 n. 31, 59 n. 48, 59–60 n. 55, 60–61 n. 61, 61 n. 66, 64 n. 79, 69–70 n. 2; 72 n. 2, 73 n. 8, 73–74 n. 12, 74 n. 13, 76 n. 5, 76–77 n. 7, 77 n. 8, 78 n. 2, 79 n. 10, 82 n. 4, 85 n. 2, 86 n. 2, 88 n. 7, 91–92 n. 4, 93 n. 2, 94 n. 3, 95 n. 1, 96 n. 2, 97 n. 3, 98 n. 4, 100 n. 2, 102–03 n. 4, 104 n. 2, 107 nn. 1, 2, 108 n. 3, 108–09 n. 6, 110 nn. 7, 8, 111 n. 4, 114 n. 3, 117 n. 8, 119 n. 2, 120–21 n. 1, 122 n. 2, 124 n. 1, 125 n. 5, 126 n. 5, 128 n. 4, 129 n. 2, 132 n. 1, 133 n. 2, 134–35 n. 1, 136 n. 2, 137 n. 6, 137–38 n. 9, 140 n. 10, 141–42 n. 6, 143 n. 2, 144 n. 6, 145 n. 2, 151 n. 2, 153 n. 1, 154 n. 1, 157–58 n. 2, 158 n. 7, 159 n. 1, 161 nn. 4, 6, 10, 163 n. 2, 166 n. 10, 169 n. 5, 171 n. 1, 172 n. 5, 176 n. 4, 177 nn. 1, 11, 179 n. 2, 180 n. 4, 181 n. 17, 183 n. 10, 184 n. 1, 185 n. 2, 186 nn. 1, 3, 187 n. 3, 193–94 n. 5, 199 nn. 2, 9, 200 nn. 5, 6, 200–01 n. 1, 208 n. 3, 210 n. 3, 213–14 n. 5, 214 nn. 1, 6, 216 n. 1, 217 nn. 4, 5, 218 n. 1, 222 nn. 6, 8, 11, 223 n. 12, 229 n. 6, 233 n. 5, 238 n. 2, 256 n. 7, 259 nn. 9, 11, 261 n. 10, 264 n. 3, 267 n. 25, 268–69 n. 28, 270 n. 1, 271 nn. 3, 4, 273 nn. 1, 2, 274 n. 7, 281 n. 17, 282 nn. 26, 34, 35, 283 n. 36, 285 n. 2, 286 n. 4, 292 nn. 12, 16, 293 nn. 19, 24, 25, 297 n. 2, 298 n. 8, 299–300 n. 2, 303–04 n. 2, 306 n. 5, 308 n. 1, 310 n. 7, 312 n. 1, 314 nn. 1, 1, 315 nn. 3, 4, 317 nn. 2, 4, 318 nn. 2, 7, 8, 319 n. 2, 321

n. 2, 327 n. 16, 328 n. 29, 331 n. 4, 336 n. 20, 346–47 n. 1, 356–57 n. 4, 365, 366 nn. 6, 10 Other writings not published by JB, manuscript journals and projected works: projected biographies of Sir Alexander Dick and Lord Kames, 97 n. 3, 113 n. 18; comedy, 260; Consultation Book, 8 n. 54, 10, 55 n. 36, 62 n. 70, 87 n. 4, 92 n. 1, 97–98 n. 3, 128 n. 4, 147 n. 1, 150 n. 2, 191 n. 8, 196 n. 1, 231 n. 2, 232 n. 4, 236 n. 1, 242 n. 5, 347 n. 10; notebook in respect of Court of Session cases in which JB engaged, 7 and n. 50, 73 n. 8, 102 n. 3; Scots song on Douglas Cause, 189 n. 3; Dutch journal (lost), 168, 169 n. 6, 169–70 n. 7; ‘Ébauche de ma vie’, 87 n. 5, 111–12 n. 9, 144–45 n. 1, 177 n. 1, 183 n. 10, 249 n. 7, 259 n. 12; expense accounts during German and Swiss travels, 188 n. 1; French Themes, 313 n. 10, 362 n. 12; ‘Handlist’ of books in JB’s Edinburgh townhouse, 51 n. 19, 133 n. 2, 144 nn. 5, 6, 312–13 n. 3, 326 nn. 8, 9, 335 n. 14; ‘Inviolable Plan’, 238 n. 2; journal 3 Jan.–14 Feb. 1762, 134 n. 1; ‘Journal of my jaunt, harvest 1762’, 61 n. 61; London journal of 1762–63, 87 n. 5, 128 and n. 4; journal notes 10 Jan.–11 Oct. 1765, 153 n. 2; ‘Journal, 1767’, 1 Jan.–3 June 1767, 15–16, 69 and n. 1, 70–201; ‘Journal, 1768’, 1 Jan.–27 Feb. 1768, 205 and n. 1, 206–50; journal in London and Oxford, 16 Mar.–[?April] 1768, 251 and n. 1, 252–303; notes for journal in Oxford and London, 24–30 Mar. 1768, 269, 270 and n. 2, 271, 276, 283, 288, 293, 296; notes for journal in London, 21 Apr.–16 May 1768, 304 and n. 1, 305–22; ‘Journal of . . . Jaunt to Ireland in 1769’, 25 Apr.–7 May 1769, 343, 344 and n. 15, 345–64; Justiciary Book (lost), 191, 192 n. 2, 194, 196; Life of Johnson (MS.), 7 June 1768, 336–37, 337 n. 1; ‘Conversation with Lord Mansfield’, 20–22 May 1768, 323–25, 325–26 n. 1, 331–32; memoranda, notes and jottings, autumn 1766, 3–4, 14–15, 45–48, 48–49 n. 5; Register of Letters

392

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 392

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index sent and received, 93 n. 1; list of Sienese acquaintances, 363 n. 16; Ten-Lines-aDay verses, 300 n. 2 Boswell, James (1778–1822), son of JB, 74 n. 13, 325–26 n. 1 Boswell, James (1710–?54), uncle of JB, 177–78 n. 1 Boswell, John, 3rd Laird of Auchinleck, 145 n. 2 Boswell, John (d. 1749), of Balmuto, father of Claud, 81 n. 4, 349 n. 15 Boswell, John (1741–1805), of Knockroon, writer in Ayr, 160 and n. 3, 194, 233–34, 235 n. 4 Boswell, Dr. John (1710–80), uncle of JB, 95 and n. 1, 136, 137 n. 7, 141 n. 3, 221, 243, 248; JB on, 95 n. 1; decidedly eccentric, 178 n. 1; and freemasonry, 95 n. 1 Boswell, Lt. John (1743–96), bro. of JB, 207–08, 253, 254 nn. 4, 5, 6, 255 n. 10, 365; suffers from intermittent attacks of insanity, 178 n. 1; journals, 77 n. 8, 216–17 n. 3 Boswell, Margaret (d. 1820), sister of Claud, 348, 349 n. 15 Boswell, Margaret (Fergusson) (d. c. 1788), mother of John Boswell of Knockroon, 160 n. 3 Boswell, Margaret (Henderson) (d. 1790), mother of Claud, 81 n. 4, 216 and n. 1, 348; JB forms habit of constant jocularity with, 216 Boswell, Margaret (Montgomerie) (c. 1738–89) (MM), wife of JB, 82 n. 5, 89–90 n. 1, 96 n. 2, 108 n. 3, 120 n. 1, 144 n. 5, 146 n. 2, 156 n. 1, 162 n. 3, 171 n. 1, 171–72 n. 7, 173, 176 n. 4, 186 n. 3, 194 n. 12, 210 n. 3, 211, 221, 236, 254 n. 5, 344 nn. 15, 16, 353 n. 9, 358 n. 13; at Auchinleck, 176 and n. 4, 343, 344 n. 16; JB behaves badly to, 345–46; characterised by JB, 348, 359; JB’s correspondence with, 186 n. 3, 365; JB’s courtship of, 37 and n. 262, 38–39, 348, 349 and n. 10, 350–65; and JB’s letter to WJT, 37, 359 and n. 1; and friendship with Countess of Crawford, 212 n. 6; death of, 366; resides in Edinburgh with JB, 108 n. 3, 366; and jaunt to

Ireland with JB, 343–65; affected by sale of Lainshaw, 171 n. 1; marriage to JB, 366; and the Prestons, 210 n. 3 Boswell, Marion (d. 1794), sister of Claud, 348, 349 n. 15 Boswell, Robert (1746–1804), writer, later W.S., 141 and n. 3 Boswell, Sally (b. 1767), illegitimate dau. of JB, 33, 36 and n. 259, 38, 167 n. 2, 211, 214, 235–38, 242 Boswell, Thomas (d. 1513), 1st Laird of Auchinleck, 59 n. 48, 81–82 n. 4, 157 n. 2 Boswell, Thomas David (born David) (1748–1826), bro. of JB, 137–38 n. 9, 160, 161 n. 8, 199 n. 8, 207–08; and JB’s ague (malaria), 137–38 n. 9; JB’s correspondence with, 82 n. 4, 137 nn. 8, 9, 140 n. 15, 142 n. 5, 148 n. 2, 151 n. 2, 160, 161 n. 8, 169 nn. 3, 6, 170 n. 7, 286 n. 6; JB wary of familiarity with, 46, 55 n. 31, 77; advises JB to get free of Mrs. Dodds, 139, 140 n. 15; career of, 55 n. 31; takes certain pride in family’s hypochondria, 177; admires Francis Stewart, 286 n. 6 Boswell, Veronica (1773–95), dau. of JB and MM, 171 n. 1 Bothwell, Eleanora (d. 1774), dau. of following, 231 and n. 2 Bothwell, Henry (d. 1735), styled Lord Holyroodhouse, 231 and n. 2 Bothwell, Janet (d. 1729), sister of preceding, 231 n. 2 Bothwell Castle, 127 n. 3 Boulton, James T., James Boswell, An Account of Corsica, The Journal of a Tour to That Island, and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli, 12, 53 n. 22 Bouquet, Col. Henry, 103 n. 1 Bousfield, Mr. (unidentified), 296–97 Bowie, Sarah (c. 1717–97), at Ayr, 194 n. 6; possible reference to, 191, 194 Bowle, Mr. (unidentified), 308 Boyce, William (1711–79), composer, 270 n. 1 Boyd, Alicia (fl. c. 1754–96), dau. of Charles, 343, 344 n. 9 Boyd, Caroline Elizabeth (c. 1746–c. 1830), dau. of Hugh, 351, 353 n. 7

393

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 393

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Boyd, Catherine (Caldwell) (d. 1781), wife of following, 343, 344 nn. 5, 6, 9, 363, 366 and n. 11 Boyd, Charles (d. 1776), of Killaghy, attorney in Dublin, 343, 344 nn. 4, 6, 9, 363 Boyd, Hugh (d. 1772), Collector of Revenue, 343, 351, 352 and nn. 4, 6, 353 n. 7, 356, 365 Boyd, Jane (Laing) (d. 1777), wife of preceding, 343, 344 n. 7, 351, 352 and n. 6, 353 n. 7, 354, 357 n. 4, 359, 363; JB’s correspondence with, 366; JB on, 351–52 Boyd, Mary Ann (b. c. 1752), dau. of Charles Boyd, 37, 343, 344 nn. 6, 9, 345, 348, 358 n. 13, 363, 364 n. 1, 365–66; marries twice and has ten children, 366, 366–67 n. 13 Boyd, Ponsonby, Surveyor of the Port at Donaghadee, son of Hugh, 351–52, 353 n. 8, 355 Boyd, Zachary (or Zacharie) (1585–1653), Church of Scotland minister, 55 n. 35; ‘Boyd’s Bible’, 46, 55 n. 35 Boyer, Jean-Baptiste de (1704–71), M. d’Argens, skeptic, wit, and author, 54 n. 27; The Jewish Spy, 46, 54 n. 28, 54–55 n. 29; Lettres Juives, 15, 46, 54 n. 27 Boyle, Richard (1694–1753), 3rd E. of Burlington, architect, 258 n. 4 Brady, Frank, Boswell on the Grand Tour: Italy, Corsica, and France, 1765–1766, 11; Boswell in Search of a Wife, 1766– 1769, 1, 32–33, 36, 38, 125 n. 4, 140 n. 14; James Boswell: The Later Years, 1769–1795, 208 n. 3 Brentford, 279, 282 n. 24, 293, 297 n. 4 Brett, Henry (1677/8–1724), politician, 322 n. 2 Bristol: Bristol Baptist College, 302 n. 3; Broadmead Chapel, 302 n. 3 British Linen Bank, 125–26 n. 5 Briton, The, 108 n. 6 Brome, Richard (c. 1590–1652), dramatist, 241 n. 7; A Jovial Crew (adaptations of), 241 n. 7 Brooke, Mrs. (d. 1782), actress, 250 n. 6 Brookes, Kitty, prostitute, 272, 274 n. 6, 293 Brookes, Richard (fl. 1721–63), author, 292–93 n. 18

Brown, George (d. 1776), Lord Coalston, 22, 129, 130 n. 1, 229, 237, 242, 245 Brown, James (d. 1788), JB’s law clerk, 8, 23, 77, 79 n. 13, 114, 146–47, 150, 153, 155–56, 162; admires JB’s Dorando, 159 Brown, John, feuar of Capt. MontgomeryCuninghame, 345 Brown, John, merchant in Glasgow, 151, 151–52 n. 1; cause of John Brown v. Caesar Parr, 6, 63 n. 76, 151, 151–52 n. 1, 345 Brown (or Broun), Rev. Richard (1730– 81), minister of Lochmaben, 227–28 n. 2; cause of Rev. Mr. Richard Brown, Minister of Lochmaben v. Heritors, or Kindly Tenants, of Lochmaben, 227–28 n. 2, 236 n. 5 Brown, Rev. Robert (1728–77), Scottish minister in Utrecht, 144 n. 5, 168, 169 nn. 5, 6, 170 n. 7, 269–70; JB’s correspondence with, 168, 169 nn. 5, 6, 170 n. 7, 269–70; JB on, 169 n. 5 Brown, William (d. c. 1794), writer in Kilmarnock, 173–74 n. 1 Browning, John, Ayrshire horse dealer, 345 n. 2 Bruce, Alexander (c. 1629–80), 2nd E. of Kincardine, 88–89 n. 2, 137 n. 3, 143 n. 2, 217 n. 5, 232 n. 3, 313 n. 9 Bruce, Alexander (1752–1829), son of James, 178 n. 3; probable reference to, 178, 178–79 n. 1 Bruce, Alexander (unidentified), 310, 311 n. 7 Bruce, Edward (c. 1276–1318), King of Ireland, 358 n. 11 Bruce, Euphemia (1743–1827), dau. of following, 186 n. 3 Bruce, James (1719–90), overseer at Auchinleck, 46, 53 n. 24, 141 n. 2, 174, 178 n. 3, 186 n. 3, 198, 201; JB’s correspondence with, 55 n. 37, 85 n. 2, 142 n. 1, 164, 345 n. 2 Bruce, Jean (White) (1717–83), wife of preceding, 186 n. 3 Bruce, John, major-domo to Lord Auchinleck, 141 and n. 2; JB on, 141 n. 2 Bruce, John, son of preceding, 141 n. 2; JB’s correspondence with, 141 n. 2

394

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 394

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Bruce, Robert (d. 1785), Lord Kennet, 114 n. 1, 117 n. 8, 118 n. 3, 147–48 n. 1, 149–50 n. 2, 235 n. 2, 237; career of, 114 n. 1 Bruce, Rev. Robert (1554–1631), Church of Scotland minister in Edinburgh, 143, 143–44 n. 3; Sermons Preached in the Kirk of Edinburgh, 144 n. 3; Sermons upon the Sacrament of the Lords Supper: Preached in the Kirk of Edinburgh, 144 n. 3 Bruce, Thomas (1663–1740), 7th E. of Kincardine, 313 n. 9 Bruce, Veronica (van Aerssen van Sommelsdyck) (1633–1701), Countess of Kincardine, 88–89 n. 2, 143 n. 2, 232 n. 3 Brunswick: JB’s travels in, 104 n. 2, 179 n. 2 Bryce, Gavin (c. 1711–75), merchant in Glasgow, 89, 92 n. 5; cause of Hugh Kerr v. Margaret and Lilias Thomson, 92 n. 5 Buchan, George (d. 1813), of Kelloe, 71 n. 8 Buchanan, George (1506–82), poet, historian and administrator, 143, 144 n. 6; Psalmorum Davidis, 144 n. 6 Burgh, James (1714–75), author and educationist, 299, 300–01 n. 4, 320; praises JB’s Account of Corsica, 19, 299, 301 n. 5; JB on, 299; Crito, 299, 301 n. 6; The Dignity of Human Nature, 299, 301 n. 6 Burke, Edmund (1729–97), statesman and author, 305 n. 5 Burlington, 3rd E. of. See Boyle, Richard, 3rd E. of Burlington Burnaby, Rev. Andrew (?1734–1812), chargé d’afffaires, Leghorn, 231 and n. 2; JB’s correspondence with, 231 and n. 2 Burnett, James (1714–99), Lord Monboddo, 49 n. 7, 81 n. 4, 101, 102–03 n. 4, 122, 123–24 n. 5, 135, 136 n. 6, 148–49 n. 2, 235 n. 4, 236, 237 and n. 1, 240; gives JB advice on Account of Corsica, 17; JB often dines with, 102 n. 4; JB’s friendship with, 102 n. 4; entertains JB and SJ at Monboddo, 102 n. 4; offended by JB’s Letter to the People of Scotland and Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 102–03 n. 4; career of, 49 n. 7; in Douglas Cause, 25–27, 324, 328 n. 32,

329 n. 42; Roman-style suppers of, 122 n. 3; Antient Metaphysics, 102 n. 4; Of the Origin and Progress of Language, 49 n. 7, 102 n. 4 Burney, Frances (‘Fanny’) (1752–1840), later Mme. d’Arblay, Early Diary, 313 n. 10, 317 n. 2 Burnie, Keith, merchant in Whithorn, 4, 38, 155 n. 2; trial of Robert Johnston and Others (‘the Galloway rioters’), 4, 38, 155 n. 2, 184 n. 1, 190, 191 and n. 7, 191–92 n. 1 Burns, Robert (1759–96), poet, 98 n. 6, 116 n. 8; describes Catharine Gordon, 197 n. 6 Writings. ‘The Author’s Earnest Cry and Prayer’, 107 n. 1; ‘Ballad Second: The Election’, 107 n. 1; ‘Grim Grizzel is a mighty dame’, 185 n. 4; ‘Elegy on Capt. M––– H–––’, 98 n. 6; ‘To Mr. McAdam of Craigengillan’, 117 n. 8 Burrow, Sir James (1701–82), Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Court of King’s Bench, 332, 336 n. 23 Bute, 3rd E. of. See Stuart, John, 3rd E. of Bute Butter, Rev. Charles, incumbent at St. Paul’s Chapel, Edinburgh, 237, 238 n. 2 Butterfield, John (fl. 1766–67), felon, 100 n. 1, 151 n. 2 Cadell, Thomas (1742–1802), bookseller in London, 321 n. 8 Cairncross, Elizabeth (d. 1759), sister of following, 80–81 n. 2 Cairncross, Hugh (d. 1753), 6th Laird of Hillslap, 80 n. 2 Cairncross, Hugh (d. 1809), mason in Galashiels, later architect in Edinburgh, 80–81 n. 2, 139 n. 4; cause of Hugh Cairncross v. William Heatly and Others, 6, 80–81 n. 2, 138, 139 n. 4 Cairncross, Janet (d. 1759), sister of Elizabeth, 80–81 n. 2 Cairnie, John (d. 1791), M.D., 36 Cairnsmore, 174 and n. 5 Caithness: Michaelmas head court for, 219 n. 2; Roll of Freeholders for, 219 n. 2 Caithness, Countess of. See Sinclair, Margaret (Primrose), Countess of Caithness

395

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 395

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Caithness, 9th E. of. See Sinclair, Alexander, 9th E. of Caithness Calder, Midlothian: Calder House, 60 n. 58; Mid Calder, 60 n. 58; witches of, 47, 60 n. 58 Caldwell, Alicia (d. c. 1793), sister of Catherine (Caldwell) Boyd, 344 n. 9 Caldwell, Anne (Winder) (d. 1775), wife of following, 356 n. 3 Caldwell, Rev. Hugh (d. 1789), curate in Newtown, 355, 356 nn. 3, 4, 357 n. 4; JB on, 355 Caldwell, Samuel, merchant, County Derry, father of Hugh and Samuel, 356 n. 3 Caldwell, Rev. Samuel (d. 1771), 355, 356 n. 3, 356–57 n. 4; JB’s correspondence with, 356–57 n. 4; and JB’s depression in Utrecht, 356–57 n. 4; and JB’s friendship with, 356–57 n. 4 Caledonian Mercury, The, 230 n. 5, 244 n. 1, 246 n. 1, 248 n. 3 Calfhill, Roxburghshire. See Hillslsap Cambridge, University of: Emmanuel College, 307 n. 2; Queen’s College, 306 n. 4; St. John’s College, 348 n. 8, 366 n. 13; Trinity Hall, 306 n. 4 Camden, Lord. See Pratt, Sir Charles, B. Camden Camlachie, 57 n. 47 Campbell, Andrew, 156; possibly party to the cause of Campbell v. Houston, 158 n. 3 Campbell, Archibald (c. 1724–80), Scottish satirist, 283–84, 287 n. 10, 321; Lexiphanes, 283, 287 n. 10 Campbell, Bruce (c. 1734–1813), later of Mayfield and Milrig, 142 n. 3, 173, 200; JB’s correspondence with, 160 n. 3 Campbell, Catherine Anne (Boyd) (b. c. 1745), dau. of Hugh Boyd, 351, 353 n. 7 Campbell, Charles Philip, husband of preceding, 353 n. 7 Campbell, Daniel, 1st of Shawfield, 197 n. 6 Campbell, Elizabeth (Gunning) (1733–90), Duchess of Argyll (formerly Duchess of Hamilton), 276 n. 15 Campbell, George (d. 1786), of Airies, Collector of Customs, 350, 351 n. 12

Campbell, George, of Treesbank, father of James, 151 n. 1 Campbell, Hugh (d. 1782), of Mayfield, 50 n. 15, 142 n. 3, 163, 173; possible reference to, 45 Campbell, Ilay (1734–1823), of Succoth, advocate (later Lord President of the Court of Session, and Bt.), 145–46 n. 1, 242, 314 n. 1; career of, 145–46 n. 1; in Douglas Cause, 22, 28, 329 n. 42; earnings as advocate, 281 n. 17 Campbell, James (d. 1776), of Treesbank, 151 n. 1, 156 and n. 1, 170–71, 344, 345 n. 1, 347 n. 2; JB on, 170–71 Campbell, John (1705–82), 4th E. of Loudoun, 70 n. 2, 223 n. 15, 254 n. 4 Campbell, John (1723–1806), styled M. of Lorne, later 5th D. of Argyll, 104 n. 1, 276 n. 15 Campbell, John (d. 1802), Lord Stonefield, 228 and n. 1 Campbell, Mary (Montgomerie) (d. 1777), sister of MM, 156 n. 1, 173, 176 n. 4, 344, 345 and nn. 1, 5, 346 Campbell, Mungo (d. 1770), excise officer, 222 n. 6, 248 n. 3 Campbell, Mungo (d. 1771), of Netherplace, 197, 198 n. 2 Campbell, Walter (1741–1816), of Shawfield, advocate, 130 n. 2, 228 and n. 2 Campbell, Mrs., 88; possibly pursuer in cause of Campbell v. Houston, 89 n. 3 Capraia, Corsican island: attack on, 152, 152–53 n. 1 Carlingford bay, 364 n. 3; canal between bay and Lough Neagh, 364 n. 3 Carlyle, Dr. Alexander (1722–1805), of Inveresk, Autobiography of Dr Alexander Carlyle of Inveresk, 271 n. 4 Carmichael, Janet (Grant) (d. 1818), Countess of Hyndford, 209 and n. 4 Carmichael, John (1710–87), of Castlecraig, advocate, 4th E. of Hyndford, 209 and n. 4, 276 n. 16 Carnock, Stirlingshire, 134 n. 1 Carnwath, Countess of. See Dalzell, Christian (Douglas), Countess of Carnwath Carnwath, 2nd E. of. See Dalzell, Robert, 2nd E. of Carnwath

396

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 396

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Carnwath, Lanarkshire, 46, 57 n. 46 Carrickfergus Bay (Belfast Lough), 355, 363 n. 17 Carrickfergus Castle, County Antrim, 355–56, 358 nn. 11, 12, 363 n. 17 Carron Bridge, Stirlingshire, 134 n. 1 Carron Company, 224 n. 5 Carron, River, 245 n. 2 Carruthers, Charlotte (Laurie) (c. 1743–1821), wife of John Carruthers, 12th Laird of Holmains, 236 n. 2 Carruthers, John, of Hardrigs (or Hardriggs), 234 and n. 1; cause of Duke of Queensberry and Robert Irvine of Woodhall v. John Carruthers of Hardrigs, 234, 234–35 n. 1 Carruthers, John (1731–1809), 12th Laird of Holmains, 236 and n. 2 Carruthers, William (d. 1759), of Hardrigs, 234 n. 1 Cartagena, 309–10 n. 7 Cassillis, 8th E. of. See Kennedy, John, 8th E. of Cassillis Cassillis, 9th E. of. See Kennedy, Sir Thomas, of Culzean, Bt., 9th E. of Cassillis Castle Stewart, 197 n. 6 Cathcart, Charles Schaw (1721–76), 9th Lord Cathcart, 253 and n. 2 Cathcart, Sir John (?1735–83), of Killochan Castle, Bt., 188 n. 1, 231 and n. 5, 236 Cathcart, Margaret (Hamilton) (d. 1817), wife of preceding, 231 and n. 5 Catrine Mill, Ayrshire, 147 n. 1 Caudle, James J., The General Correspondence of James Boswell, 1757–1763, 85 n. 2 Caulfield, William (d. 1767), military road builder, 364 n. 6 Cave, Edward (1691–1754), printer and publisher, 293 n. 18 Cawdor, 283 n. 36 Cawthorne, Joseph (fl. 1764–96), merchant in Madeira and political writer, 308 n. 5; and JB’s British Essays in Favour of the Brave Corsicans, 308 n. 5; JB’s correspondence with, 308 n. 5 Cervantes, Miguel de, Don Quixote, 145, 146 n. 2, 180 n. 4 Chais, Charles Pierre, minister of the French church in The Hague, 138 n. 12

Chalmer, John Muir (1726–74), of Gadgirth, W.S., 147 n. 1, 150 n. 2, 212, 234, 235 n. 2; JB’s correspondence with, 5 n. 27 Chalmers, Euphemia (Murdoch), wife of following, 90 n. 1 Chalmers, James (d. 1783), of Fingland, 90 n. 1, 156, 158 n. 7, 163 Chalmers, Miss, milliner and mantuamaker in Edinburgh, 135, 136 n. 5 Chambers, Frances (Wilton) (1759–1839), wife of following, 298 n. 10 Chambers, Robert (1737–1803), later Sir Robert, 276–80, 280 n. 1, 281 n. 13, 283–85, 298 n. 10; JB on, 277; JB sups with, 288–90; and SJ’s help preparing lectures, 281 n. 13 Chapple, Richard, barber in Taunton, 263 n. 1 Charles I (1600–49), King of England, Scotland and Ireland, 63 n. 75 Charles II (1630–85), King of England, Scotland and Ireland, 63 n. 75 Charles Edward Stewart (1720–88), P. (‘Young Pretender’), 318 n. 8 Charlotte Sophia (1744–1818), Queen of George III, 313 n. 10 Charrière, Charles-Emmanuel de (1735– 1808), husband of following, 215 n. 1 Charrière, Isabelle de. See Zuylen, Belle de Chatham, 1st E. of. See Pitt, William, the Elder Cheltenham, 285 n. 2 Chichester, Arthur (1739–99), 5th E. (later 1st M.) of Donegall, 359, 361 n. 6 China, 289, 292 n. 17, 292–93 n. 18; Chinese Wall, 292 n. 17; Peking, 292 n. 17 Chiswick, 308 n. 1 Choiseul, Étienne-François de (1719–85), Duc de Choiseul, French Minister of War and Foreign Affairs, 330–31 n. 53 Church of England: ‘Qualified Chapels’ where services conducted in accordance with liturgy of, 238 n. 2; Thirty-nine Articles, 285, 288 n. 25 Church of Ireland, 355, 357–58 n. 8 Church of Scotland: ‘Evangelical’ party in, 76 n. 7; General Assembly of, 73 n. 9, 76 n. 7, 133 n. 4, 143–44 n. 3, 146 n. 1, 211 nn. 2, 4, 253 n. 2, 288 n. 22; ‘Judicial Testimony’, 166 n. 5; word ‘lecture’ in

397

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 397

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Scottish church usage, 248 n. 5; ‘Moderate’ party in, 288 n. 22; singing of psalms led by precentor, 110, 111 n. 8; secession, 164 n. 2, 166 n. 5; church services, 172 n. 2, 195 n. 1 Churchill, Charles (1732–64), poet and satirist, 108 n. 6 Cibber, Colley (1671–1757), actor, author and theatre manager, 282 n. 26 Cicereius, Gaius (fl. 173 b.c.), Roman praetor: and Corsica, 53 n. 22 Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (106–43 b.c.), Roman statesman and orator, 72 n. 4; De Oratore, 45, 49 nn. 6–7 Circe, 135, 136 n. 6, 148–49 n. 2 Clarendon, 2nd E. of. See Hyde, Henry, 2nd E. of Clarendon Clarendon, 4th E. of. See Hyde, Henry, 4th E. of Clarendon Clarke, Dr. Samuel (1675–1729), theologian and philosopher, 315 and nn. 4, 5, 317 Clayton, Mr. (unidentified), 263 Cleopatra (69–30 b.c.), Egyptian queen, 136 n. 1 Clerihue, John (d. 1769), tavern keeper in Edinburgh, 78 n. 8 Clerk, Col. (later Lt.-Gen.) Robert, 269, 271 n. 4; JB on, 271 n. 4; on oil as a form of prevention of venereal infection, 269, 271 n. 5 Clifton, William, of Edinburgh, father of Christian Catherine (Clifton) Wyvill, 306 n. 4 Closeburn House, Dumfriesshire: destruction of, 187–88 n. 2 Cloverhill (or Cowden), Dumbartonshire, 219 n. 1 Cloyd, E. L., James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, 102 n. 4 Cluverius, Philippe (1580–1622), German geographer, Introductionis in Universam Geographiam, 57 n. 43; Sardinia et Corsica Antiquae, 57 n. 43 Clydesdale hills, 174 Coal-black Joke, The, song, 260 n. 2 Coalston, Lord. See Brown, George, Lord Coalston Coates (or Coatts), Rev. William (d. 1777), 163, 164 n. 3

Cochrane, Lady Anne (Murray) (d. 1710), 1st wife of 4th E. of Dundonald, 230 n. 1 Cochrane, Basil (1701–88), great-uncle of JB, 139, 140 n. 10; JB on, 140 n. 10 Cochrane, Elizabeth, illegitimate dau. of preceding, 140 n. 10 Cochrane, Elizabeth (Kerr) (d. 1743), 1st wife of 8th E. of Dundonald, 247 n. 2 Cochrane, Hon. James Atholl (1751–1823), later rector of Longhorsley, son of 8th E. of Dundonald, 283–84, 287 n. 15 Cochrane, Jean (Stuart) (d. 1808), Countess of Dundonald, 247 n. 2, 287 n. 15 Cochrane, John (1689–1720), 4th E. of Dundonald, 230 n. 1 Cochrane, Sir John (d. 1707), of Ochiltree, 163 n. 2 Cochrane, Lady Mary (Bruce), wife of William Cochrane of Ochiltree, 136, 137 n. 3 Cochrane, Thomas (1691–1778), 8th E. of Dundonald, 246, 246–47 n. 2, 247 n. 3, 284, 287 n. 15; as violent partisan of the Hamilton interest in the Douglas Cause, 247 n. 2 Cochrane, William (d. 1799), merchant, 268 n. 26 Cochrane, William, illegitimate son of Basil Cochrane, 140 n. 10 Cochrane, William (d. after 1716), of Ochiltree, 137 n. 3 Cochrane, Miss, milliner and mantuamaker in Edinburgh, 135, 136 n. 5 Cochrane family, of Waterside, 161 n. 7 Cockayne (or Cokayne), William (1717–98), Church of England clergyman, 277, 280 n. 7 Cockburn, Alison (or Alice or Alicia) (Rutherford) (1713–94), authoress, 232 and n. 5; ‘The Flowers of the Forest’, 232 n. 5; Letters and memoir of her own life, 232 n. 5 Cockburn, George (1729–99), of Gleneagles, advocate, later George Cockburn Haldane, 228 and n. 3, 275 n. 7 Cockburn, Henry (1779–1854), Memorials of His Time, 94 n. 3, 184 n. 2, 224 n. 2, 230 n. 7 Cockburn, Patrick (d. 1753), of Ormiston, advocate, 232 n. 5

398

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 398

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Cocker, Edward (1631–75), Cocker’s Decimal Arithmetic, 106–07 n. 1; A Treatise of Arithmetic, 106–07 n. 1; A Treatise of Arithmetic (revised and corrected by John Mair), 106–07 n. 1 Coilsfield, Ayrshire, 200, 200–01 n. 1 Colchester, 282 n. 34 Cole, Mr. (unidentified), 308 Colville, Admiral Alexander (1717–70), 7th Lord Colville of Culross, 2nd husband of following, 86 n. 2 Colville, Lady Elizabeth. See Macfarlane, Lady Elizabeth (Erskine) (later Colville) Colville, Sir Robert (1625–97), 357 n. 7 Colville family, of Newtown, County Down, 355, 357 n. 5 Comber, County Down, 355 n. 2, 359 Commissary court, 134 n. 1, 216 n. 3 Concanen, Mathew (1701–49), author, poet and lawyer, 241 n. 7 Connell, Rev. James (d. 1789), minister of Sorn, 167, 168 n. 4 Conning, Patrick, merchant in Whithorn, 4, 38, 155 n. 2, 191 n. 1; trial of Robert Johnston and Others (‘the Galloway rioters’), 4, 38, 155 n. 2, 184 n. 1, 190, 191 and n. 7, 191–92 n. 1 Constant de Rebeque, David-Louis, B. de (1722–85), styled Constant d’Hermenches, 311 n. 1 Cook, Capt. James (1728–79), circumnavigator, Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, 338 n. 7; Voyage Towards the South Pole, 338 n. 7 Cooley Mountains, County Louth, 363, 364 n. 5 Cooper, Anthony Ashley (1671–1713), 3rd E. of Shaftesbury, author and philosopher, 315 n. 4 Cornwallis, Charles (1738–1805), 2nd E. (later 1st M.) Cornwallis, 121 n. 1 Correggio (1489–1534), Italian painter, 318 n. 8 Corrybrough, Inverness-shire, 83 n. 1 Corsehill, Ayrshire: ruined castle of, 345, 346 n. 5 Corsehill, family of, 345 Corsica: 69, 72 n. 3, 139, 215 n. 1, 257, 272, 305 n. 5, 313 n. 8, 316 n. 1, 318, 319–20

n. 1, 325, 348; and Baretti, 297, 298 n. 9; JB plays flute in, 360, 362 n. 16; JB contracts malaria in, 137–38 n. 9, 233 n. 5; JB’s tour of, 11–12, 154 n. 1, 268–69 n. 28, 270 n. 1, 300 n. 3, 304, 304–05 n. 3; and E. of Chatham, 103 n. 5; and Gaius Cicereius, 53 n. 22; Corte, 280 n. 2; and France, 54–55 n. 29, 304 n. 3, 305 n. 5; and Genoa, 11, 54–55 n. 29, 152– 53 n. 1, 153 n. 3, 319–20 n. 1; and Ireland, 357 n. 5, 360, 362 n. 11, 365; and Italian merchants, 305 n. 9; and Lord Mansfield, 39, 325, 330–31 n. 53; and Papyrius Maso, 53 n. 22; military news of, 152; and Marcus Pinarius, 52–53 n. 22; Proclamation of 1763, 15, 103 n. 5, 320 n. 1; and Rome’s dominium over, 45, 52–53 n. 22; and Rousseau, 11; and Lucius Cornelius Scipio, 53 n. 22; and Theodore, 46, 54–55 n. 29 Cosh, sea-captain, 350 Coull, Aberdeenshire, 63 n. 76 Courcy, Affreca de (fl. 1193), wife of following, 353 n. 17 Courcy, John de (d. 1219), 353 n. 17, 358 n. 11 Court of Exchequer, 127 n. 2, 179 n. 2, 224 n. 2 Court of Justiciary, 10, 127 n. 2, 193 n. 5, 195 n. 9, 334–35 n. 12; circuits, 75 n. 1, 94 n. 3, 188 n. 6; new style of defending prisoners, 75–76 n. 3; location of Court in Edinburgh, 75 n. 1; sitting in Edinburgh, 58 n. 47, 99 n. 1, 113 and nn. 2–4, 225, 225–26 n. 2, 226 n. 3, 248 n. 3; and forgery cases, 224 n. 5; Northern Circuit, 85 n. 2, 90 n. 4; Southern Circuit, 60 n. 60, 172, 175 n. 1, 180 n. 5, 183 and n. 10, 183–84 n. 1, 191–92 n. 1, 193 n. 5, 194 and n. 1, 195 and n. 9, 196 n. 1; Western Circuit, 4, 38, 50 n. 15, 51 n. 18, 55 n. 37, 57–58 n. 47, 59 n. 49 Court of Session, 3, 8 n. 54, 16–17, 21–23, 25, 27–28, 38–39, 45, 61–62 n. 70, 65 n. 85, 78 n. 4, 79–80 n. 14, 80–81 n. 2, 82 n. 5, 96 n. 3, 101–02 n. 3, 111 n. 3, 114 n. 2, 117 n. 8, 123 n. 3, 123–24 n. 5, 124 n. 3, 127 n. 2, 141 n. 3, 145–46 n. 1, 147 n. 1, 151–52 n. 1, 158–59 n. 8, 171 n. 4,

399

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 399

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index 175 n. 1, 205–07 n. 2, 213 n. 2, 224 n. 5, 225 and n. 2, 226 n. 3, 227–28 n. 2, 329 n. 42; bill to reduce number of Lords of Session, 93 n. 2, 306 n. 4; JB on court procedures, 6; JB on collecting Session Papers, 5; mainly court of papers, 5–6; method of recording decisions in, 71, 72 n. 7; publication of decisions of, 176 n. 4; in Douglas Cause, 24, 209 n. 2; and forgery cases, 224 n. 5; Inner House, 6–7, 9, 24, 62 n. 70, 80 n. 14, 83–84 n. 1, 92 n. 1, 96–97 n. 3, 101–02 n. 3, 102 n. 4, 117 n. 8, 147–48 n. 1, 149–50 n. 2, 157 n. 1, 165–66 n. 4, 169 n. 2, 205–07 n. 2, 219–20 n. 2, 234 n. 1, 235 n. 2; Lord Ordinary, 102 n. 4; Lord Probationer, 102 n. 4; macers of, 251–52 n. 4; Outer House, 6 and n. 35, 94 n. 3, 102 n. 4; Poor’s Roll, 78 n. 4, 83 n. 1, 140 n. 8; common for proof to be taken in tavern or coffee house, 115 n. 2; salary of judges, 281 n. 17; court sessions and vacations, 45, 132 and n. 1, 139–40 n. 5, 142, 175 n. 1, 197 n. 1, 281 n. 17, 343; actions for suspension, 61 n. 70, 101 n. 3, 147 n. 1 Coutts, James (d. 1798), of Hallgreen, 205 n. 2, 220 n. 2; cause of Walter Ogilvie of Clova and William Douglas of Bridgetown v. James Coutts of Hallgreen, 219–20 n. 2, 221–22 n. 5, 225 n. 1 Cowper, Mrs., actress, 259 n. 11 Cox, John, shipmaster, 351 n. 11; possible reference to, 350 Cox, William, shipmaster, 351 n. 11; possible reference to, 350 Craftsman, The, 272, 276 n. 23 Craig Kingledoors, Peebleshire, 57 n. 47 Craig-Brown, T., article in The Scotsman, 81 n. 2 Craigbuie (or Craigbouie), Wigtownshire, 119 n. 2, 350 Craigengillan. See McAdam, John, of Craigengillan Craigie, Ayrshire, 195 and n. 2 Crane, Margery (or Margaret) (Parr) (?1704–80), 152 n. 1 Craufuird, Anne (Kennedy), wife of following, 349 n. 17

Craufuird, Archibald (d. 1784), of Ardmillan, 348, 349 n. 17 Craufuird, Jean (bap. 1735), sister of preceding, 348, 349 n. 17 Craufuird, Marion (bap. 1733), sister of Archibald, 348, 349 n. 19 Craufuird, Marion (Hay), mother of Archibald, 348, 349 and n. 18; JB on, 348 Craufuird, Mary (bap. 1739), sister of Archibald, 348, 349 n. 19 Craufuird, Thomas (d. 1793), bro. of Archibald, 349 n. 17 Craufurd, John (d. 1776), of Doonside, 347–48, 348 n. 5 Craufurd, Katherine (Forbes), wife of following, 239 n. 5 Craufurd, Ronald (d. 1762), of Restalrig, W.S., 239 n. 5 Crawford, Countess of. See Lindsay, Jean (Hamilton), Countess of Crawford Crawford, 17th E. of. See Lindsay, George, 17th E. of Crawford Crawford, Robert, Scotland’s Books: A History of Scottish Literature, 58–59 n. 48 Crawford, Thomas, Correspondence of James Boswell and William Johnson Temple (Vol. 1, 1756–1777), 51 n. 16, 316 n. 3 Cready, James, sailor in Garlieston, 4, 38, 155 n. 2; trial of Robert Johnston and Others (‘the Galloway rioters’), 4, 38, 155 n. 2, 184 n. 1, 190, 191 and n. 7, 191–92 n. 1 Crébillon, Prosper Jolyot de (1674–1762), Rhadamistus and Zenobia, 54–55 n. 29 Creech, William (1745–1815), bookseller in Edinburgh, 217 n. 4 Critical Review, The, 18–19, 26–27, 275–76 n. 10, 309 and n. 6, 310 n. 15 Cromartie, 3rd E. of. See Mackenzie, George, 3rd E. of Cromartie Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658), Lord Protector, 199 n. 9, 241 n. 7, 361 n. 9 Crosbie, Andrew (1736–85), advocate, 58 n. 47, 76 n. 3, 102 n. 3, 225 and n. 2, 226 n. 6, 242, 248 n. 3 Cubbieson (or Cubbison), David (d. 1769), son of John Cubbieson of Blackcraig, 92–93 n. 1; cause of David Cubbieson

400

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 400

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index of Blackcraig v. John Cubbieson, 10, 92, 92–93 n. 1, 97–98 n. 3 Cubbieson (or Cubbison), John (1740– 1817), son of following, 92–93 n. 1; cause of David Cubbieson of Blackcraig v. John Cubbieson, 10, 92, 92–93 n. 1, 97–98 n. 3 Cubbieson (or Cubbison), John (d. 1766), of Blackcraig, 92–93 n. 1 Cubbieson (or Cubbison), Mary (Crawford), wife of preceding, 93 n. 1 Cullen, Anna (Johnstone) (d. 1786), wife of William, 230 n. 7 Cullen, Robert (1742–1810), advocate, later Lord Cullen, 230 and n. 7 Cullen, Dr. William (1710–90), physician and chemist, 230 n. 7 Culross, 76 n. 7, 137 n. 3; JB’s fondness for, 210 n. 3; Culross Abbey House, 137 n. 3, 246 n. 2; Culross Palace, 137 n. 3 Culzean Castle, Ayrshire, 81 n. 2 Cumberland, P. William Augustus (1721– 65), D. of, 210 n. 2, 253 n. 2 Cumming, Jane, of Newry, later wife of Thomas Templeton, 364 n. 4; possible reference to, 363 Cumming, Nancy, of Newry, later wife of Robert Stevenson, 364 n. 4; possible reference to, 363 Cumming, Thomas (d. 1774), merchant in London, 299, 301–02 n. 10 Cumnock, Ayrshire, 150, 160, 174, 199 n. 6 Cuningham, Sir John (c. 1696–1777), of Caprington, Bt., 133 and n. 5 Cuninghame, Alexander (d. 1784), bro. of Walter, 344, 345 and n. 6 Cuninghame, Annie (d. 1779), 56 n. 38, 344, possible reference to, 46 Cuninghame, David (d. 1814), later Sir David Montgomerie-Cuninghame of Corsehill, Bt., 344, 345 and n. 6 Cuninghame, Sir David (d. 1770), of Corsehill, Bt., 82 n. 5, 173 n. 1 Cuninghame (or Cunningham), Dr. George Augustus (fl. 1744–95), surgeon, 346, 347 n. 2 Cuninghame, Jean (b. 1754), dau. of William Cuninghame of Auchenskeith, 347 n. 15; possible reference to, 346

Cuninghame, Margaret (b. 1755), dau. of William Cuninghame of Auchenskeith, 347 n. 15; possible reference to, 346 Cuninghame, Margaret (Fairlie) (d. 1811), wife of William Cuninghame of Auchenskeith, 61 n. 66, 347 n. 15 Cuninghame, Penelope (Montgomery), wife of Sir David Cuninghame of Corsehill, 82 n. 5 Cuninghame, Walter (d. 1814), later Sir Walter Montgomerie-Cuninghame of Corsehill, Bt., 344, 345 and n. 6 Cuninghame, William (d. 1781), of Auchenskeith, 61 n. 66, 191, 346, 347 and n. 9 Cuninghame, William, of Bridgehouse, tobacco merchant, 171 n. 1 Cunningham, William (d. 1775), 12th E. of Glencairn, 70 n. 2, 168–69 n. 2; cause of Earl of Glencairn and William Paterson v. The Magistrates and Town Council of Kilmarnock, 168–69 n. 2 Cupar, Fife, 334 n. 12 Currie, James, out-pensioner of Chelsea Hospital, 173–74 n. 1; trial of James Barclay and others (‘the Stewarton rioters’), 4, 38, 172–73, 173–74 n. 1 Cuthbertson, David, The Smugglers of Troon, 193 n. 5 Dalai Lama, 292 n. 17 Dalblair (estate): JB purchases, 155 and n. 1, 160; JB dissipates much of money borrowed for purchase of, 161 n. 10; JB visits, 174; the ‘Hole’, 174, 175 n. 15 Dalhousie, 8th E. of. See Ramsay, George, 8th E. of Dalhousie Dalquharran Castle, Ayrshire, 81 n. 2 Dalrymple, Anne (Brown) (d. 1768), 1st wife of Sir David, 91 n. 4, 130 n. 1 Dalrymple, Anne (Horn) (d. 1731), Lady Drummore, 65 n. 85 Dalrymple, Sir David (1726–92), Bt., Lord Hailes, 6, 10, 89, 90–92 n. 4, 101, 101–02 n. 3, 122, 130 n. 1, 138 and n. 12, 306 n. 4; and JB’s Account of Corsica, 16–17, 245, 246 n. 1, 276 n. 12; JB breakfasts with, 245; advises JB to burn song, The Hamilton Cause, 22, 105; commends JB in some

401

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 401

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index causes, 139; JB’s friendship with, 90–92 n. 4, 246 n. 1; career of, 90–91 n. 4; in Douglas Cause, 25 n. 191; wins admiration of SJ, 91 n. 4; on Lords of Session making a jury, 272; reputation as advocate and judge, 90–91 n. 4; Annals of Scotland, 91 n. 4; Decisions of the Lords of Council and Session, 72 n. 7, 73 n. 8 Dalrymple, Euphame (Myreton) (d. 1761), wife of following, 64 n. 79 Dalrymple, Hon. George (c. 1680–1745), of Dalmahoy, Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, 47, 64 nn. 77, 79 Dalrymple, Helen (Fergusson) (d. 1810), 2nd wife of Sir David, 91 n. 4 Dalrymple, Sir Hew (1712–90), of North Berwick, Bt., 276 n. 17 Dalrymple, Hugh (1690–1755), Lord Drummore, 65 n. 85 Dalrymple, James (d. 1760), 3rd E. of Stair, 101 n. 2 Dalrymple, James (1619–95), 1st V. Stair, The Institutions of the Law of Scotland, 106 n. 1 Dalrymple, John (1734–79), Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 91 n. 4 Dalrymple, John (c. 1673–1747), 2nd E. of Stair, 47, 64 n. 80, 101 n. 2, 270 n. 3 Dalrymple-Crichton, William (d. 1768), 5th E. of Dumfries, 101 and n. 2, 101–02 n. 3, 122 n. 3, 160, 174; cause of John and Samuel Osborn (or Osburn) v. Earl of Dumfries, 101 and 101–02 n. 3 Dalrymple family, 272 Dalswinton, Dumfriesshire, 185 and n. 3, 187 Dalyell (or Dalziell), Sir Robert (d. 1791), of Binns, Bt., 113 n. 3 Dalzell, Christian (Douglas), Countess of Carnwath, 65 n. 86 Dalzell, Robert (1611–54), 2nd E. of Carnwath, 65 n. 86 Dalzell (or Dalziel) House, Lanarkshire, 48, 65 n. 85 Dance, James. See Love, James (Dance) D’Arcy, Lady Frederica (Schomberg) (c. 1688–1751), Countess of Holdernesse, 210 n. 2 D’Arcy, Robert (1681–1722), 3rd E. of Holdernesse, 210 n. 2

David I (c. 1082–1153), King of Scotland, 71 n. 2, 210 n. 2, 294, 296 n. 21, 309, 310 n. 12 David II (1324–71), King of Scotland, 309, 310 n. 12 Davidson, John (d. 1797), W.S., 242 and n. 2; Accounts of the Chamberlain of Scotland, 242 n. 2; tract on the Black Acts, 242 n. 2; tract on the Regiam Majestatem, 242 n. 2 Davies, Sir John (1569–1626), 45, 51 n. 19; Discoverie of the true causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued, 45, 51 n. 19 Davies, Thomas (c. 1712–85), actor and bookseller, 297, 298 n. 8, 300 n. 3, 336–37 De la Cherois, Daniel, father of following, 355 n. 2 De la Cherois (or Delacherois), Marie Angélique Madeleine (d. 1771), Dowager Countess of Mount Alexander, 354, 355 n. 2, 356; JB on, 354, 356 De la Torre, Lillian, The Heir of Douglas, 107 n. 1 Delaval, George Shafto (1703–82), M.P., 252 n. 3 Delaval, Sir John Hussey (1728–1808), Bt., M.P., 252 n. 3 Dempster, George (1732–1818) (GD), M.P., 85 n. 2, 228, 229 n. 5, 302 n. 2; JB’s correspondence with, 9, 11 and n. 81, 38, 87–88 n. 7, 89 n. 1, 200 n. 1, 349 n. 10, 364 n. 1; JB’s friendship with, 229 n. 5; JB on, 229 n. 5; pleads parliamentary privilege in prosecution for bribery and corruption, 39, 332, 334–35 n. 12; fondness for expression ‘rampaging’ and derivatives, 200 n. 1; A Collection of Original Poems by Scotch Gentlemen (GD’s contributions to), 134 n. 1; Critical Strictures on Elvira (with AE and JB), 85 n. 2 Derrick, Samuel (1724–69), Irish playwright and poet, 259 n. 11; Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies, 274 n. 5 Descartes, René (1596–1650), French philosopher and mathematician, 315 n. 4 Destouches, Philippe Néricault (1680–1754), French dramatist, 306 n. 2

402

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 402

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Destouches, —, son of preceding, probable reference to, 305, 306 n. 2 Dettingen, battle of, 64 n. 80, 101 n. 2, 205 n. 2 Deyverdun, Georges (1734–89), Swiss author, 18 Dick, Sir Alexander (born Cunyngham) (1703–85), of Prestonfield, Bt., 10, 95, 96–97 n. 3, 101, 120, 185 n. 2, 221, 250; and JB’s Account of Corsica, 17; JB’s correspondence with, 6, 9, 15, 55 n. 37, 80 n. 2, 96–97 n. 3, 137–38 n. 9, 215 n. 2, 233 n. 5, 314 n. 1, 316 n. 2, 317 n. 1, 358 n. 13, 365, 366 n. 3; JB’s friendship with, 96 n. 3; JB on, 96 n. 3, 221; on Catherine Blair, 358 n. 13; cause of Sir Alexander Dick v. The Earl of Abercorn, 10, 96–97 n. 3 Dick, Ann (Muir), wife of William, 192 n. 3 Dick, Charles (b. 1736; d. after 1805), of Frackafield, 317 and n. 1 Dick, Sir John (1720–1804), British Consul in Leghorn, 152, 153 n. 2, 261–62, 269, 296, 302, 308 and n. 5, 309, 312, 314–15, 317–20, 322; and JB’s British Essays in Favour of the Brave Corsicans, 308 n. 5; JB’s correspondence with, 152, 153 n. 3; claim to dormant baronetcy of Braid, 153 n. 2, 317 n. 1; and Corsica, 153 n. 2 Dick, William (d. ?1784), father-in-law of Matthew Hay, 191, 192 n. 3 Dickie, Matthew (d. 1793), writer in Edinburgh, 89 n. 1, 113, 114 n. 2, 141, 154, 191, 211 Digges, West (?1725–86), actor and theatre manager, 249 n. 6 Dilly, Charles (1739–1807), bookseller and publisher, 16–17, 265–66 n. 13, 266 n. 16, 300 n. 2, 301 n. 8, 304 n. 2, 307, 316, 321; publishes JB’s Account of Corsica, 16–17, 244 and n. 1; JB calls on, 18, 262–63; JB on, 262 Dilly, Edward (1732–79), bookseller and publisher, 16–17, 265–66 n. 13, 266 n. 16, 300 nn. 2, 3, 301 n. 8, 304 n. 2, 307, 316, 321; publishes JB’s Account of Corsica, 16–17, 244 and n. 1, 245 n. 2; JB

calls on, 18, 262–63; JB’s correspondence with, 244 n. 1, 245 n. 2, 245–46 n. 1, 246 n. 1, 299, 302 n. 13; JB dines with, 299; British Essays in Favour of the Brave Corsicans (contribution to), 308 n. 5 Dilly, Martha (d. 1803), sister of Charles and Edward, 262, 266 n. 14; JB on, 262 Dodds, Mrs., JB’s mistress, 30 and nn. 211, 215, 31–33, 35, 36 and n. 259, 38, 75, 77 n. 9, 83, 85, 88, 89 and n. 5, 95, 100, 105, 111, 113, 120, 123, 126, 128–29, 132 n. 4, 133–35, 136 nn. 6–8, 139, 140 nn. 14, 15, 148–49 n. 2, 179–80 n. 2, 211; possible reference to, 121; characterised by JB as Chloe, 148 n. 2, as Circe, 142, as Lais, 143; reproves JB for drinking too much, 77, 79 n. 12; JB on, 30, 129 n. 1; gives birth to JB’s daughter Sally, 33, 167 n. 2; announces that she is pregnant, 167 and n. 2 Doig, Peggy, mother of JB’s son Charles, 36 and n. 259, 87 n. 5 Donaghadee, County Down, 351 n. 14, 352 n. 3, 353 nn. 7, 8, 355 n. 3, 358 n. 13; Hillsborough Arms, 351 Donaldson, Alexander (d. 1794), Edinburgh bookseller, 53 n. 23, 159 n. 8, 217 n. 4, 314 and n. 1, 317, 322; JB on, 314 n. 1; publishes Collection of Original Poems by Scotch Gentlemen, 314 n. 1; wins copyright case of John Hinton v. Alexander Donaldson and Others, 314 n. 1 Donaldson, John (b. 1729, fl. 1782), Edinburgh bookseller, younger bro. of Alexander, 158–59 n. 8; JB represents in contempt of court case, 158–59 n. 8 Donegall, 5th E. of. See Chichester, Arthur, 5th E. of Donegall Dornal, Ayrshire, 174, 175 n. 14 Dornock, Dumfriesshire, 234, 234–35 n. 1 Dôthel, Nicolas (1721–1810), flute teacher in Florence, 362–63 n. 16 Douglas, Archibald (1694–1761), 3rd M. and 1st D. of Douglas, 20–21, 24, 127 n. 3, 330 n. 45 Douglas, Archibald James Edward (1748– 1827), later 1st B. Douglas of Douglas, 20–29, 105 n. 1, 127 n. 3, 177 n. 10, 209

403

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 403

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index n. 2, 262, 264 n. 3, 274 n. 7, 275 n. 10, 282 n. 32, 324, 326 n. 11, 327 nn. 18, 21, 28, 328 nn. 30, 32, 329 nn. 38, 42, 345, 346 n. 4, 348 n. 8 Douglas, Catherine (Hyde) (c. 1701–77), Duchess of Queensberry, 181, 182 n. 7 Douglas, Charles (1698–1778), 3rd D. of Queensberry, 180 n. 14, 182 nn. 3, 7, 185 n. 2, 187 n. 2, 262, 264 n. 3, 275 n. 7, 282 n. 26; JB’s correspondence with, 264 n. 3; and JB’s aim of getting a commission in the Guards, 264 n. 3; career of, 264 n. 3; and Douglas Cause, 274–75 n. 7; cause of Duke of Queensberry and Robert Irvine of Woodhall v. John Carruthers of Hardrigs, 234, 234–35 n. 1 Douglas, Dunbar (1722–99), 4th E. of Selkirk, 22 n. 170 Douglas, Heron and Co., banking firm, 93 n. 2, 126 n. 5, 160 n. 3, 349 n. 17 Douglas, James (1702–68), 14th E. of Morton, 127, 127–28 n. 3; cause of Earl of Morton v. Hugh Baillie of Monkton, 128 n. 4; cause of Earl of Morton v. Heretors of Ratho, 128 n. 4 Douglas, Rev. James (d. 1780), prebendary of Durham Cathedral, 235 and n. 2 Douglas, Lady Jane (1698–1753), 20–21, 24, 26–27, 163 n. 1, 190 n. 3, 276 nn. 16, 17, 282 n. 32, 325, 327 nn. 21, 28, 328 nn. 30, 32, 329 n. 38, 330 n. 45 Douglas, Jean (Halyburton) (d. 1782), wife of Rev. James, 235 and n. 2 Douglas, Rev. Dr. John (1721–1807), later Bishop of Salisbury, 336–37, 338 n. 7 Writings. Apology for the Clergy, 338 n. 7; The Critereon, 338 n. 7; Milton No Plagiary, 338 n. 7 Douglas, Margaret, prisoner in Tolbooth of Dumfries, 183, 183–84 n. 1 Douglas, Margaret (Douglas) (d. 1774), Duchess of, 126, 127 n. 3; and Douglas Cause, 21, 127 n. 3 Douglas, William (1745–1814), 2nd of Brigton (or Bridgetown), 220 n. 2; cause of Walter Ogilvie of Clova and William Douglas of Bridgetown v. James Coutts of Hallgreen, 219–20 n. 2, 221–22 n. 5, 225 n. 1, 226 n. 4

Douglas, William (c. 1731–83), of Kelhead, later Bt., 185 and n. 2 Douglas, William (1637–95), 1st D. of Queensberry, 180 n. 14 Douglas family, 159, 346 n. 5 Douglas Castle, 21 and n. 159 Douglas Cause, 1, 20–29, 38–39, 123 n. 4, 127 n. 3, 158–59 n. 8, 162 and n. 2, 163 and n. 1, 176, 177 n. 10, 209–10, 247 n. 2, 253, 264 n. 3, 279, 332, 345, 346 n. 4; JB’s newspaper articles on, 23, 158–59 n. 8; JB’s song, The Douglas Cause, 24, 188, 189–90 n. 3; JB’s song, The Hamilton Cause, 22–23, 105, 105–07 n. 1, 110, 111 nn. 1–2, 122, 129 (See also Boswell, James, Writings, for other writings); JB’s reasons for supporting Archibald Douglas, 22 and n. 169; Court of Session finds in favour of Duke of Hamilton, 24, 209 n. 2; William Guthrie on, 272, 275 n. 10; appeal to House of Lords, 274 n. 7; House of Lords delivers judgment in favour of Douglas, 28, 264 n. 3, 329 n. 38, 348; Memorial for Archibald Douglas and others, 145 and n. 1, 149; Memorial for Duke of Hamilton and others, 105 n. 1, 141–42, 149; reasons for popular support for Douglas, 24; riot in Edinburgh after decision of House of Lords, 28–29; and speeches in House of Lords, 329 n. 38; and speeches of Lords of Session, 309, 310 n. 14, 318 n. 3, 323–25, 326 n. 11, 327 nn. 18–19, 21, 25–26, 28, 328 nn. 31–32 Down, County: JB on state of the land, 351–52, 360; description of the land, 353 n. 14; manufacture of linen in, 360, 361 n. 8; slate quarry, 353 n. 15 Drongan, Ayrshire, 155 n. 2 Drumlanrig (estate), Dumfriesshire, 178, 180 n. 12; description of, 181–82 n. 1; wild cattle at, 181, 182 n. 6 Drumlanrig Castle, 178, 180–81 n. 14 Drummond, James (1707–81), 13th E. of Perth, 313 n. 9 Drummond, James Louis (1750–1800), 4th E. of Melfort, 313 n. 9 Drummond, Rachel (Bruce), Countess of Perth, 313 n. 9

404

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 404

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Drummond, Thomas Lundin (c. 1742–80), styled Lord Drummond, 312, 313 n. 9, 315, 318 Drummore, Lady. See Dalrymple, Anne (Horn) Drummore, Lord. See Dalrymple, Hugh, Lord Drummore Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste (1674–1743), French Jesuit, 289, 292–93 n. 18; A Description of the Empire of China and Chinese-Tartary, 289, 292–93 n. 18; The General History of China, 289, 292–93 n. 18 Dublin, 213 n. 5, 343, 346, 347 n. 2, 349, 354, 359, 363; St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 337, 339 n. 32; Trinity College, 356 n. 4 Dubos, Jean-Baptiste (1670–1742), Critical Reflections on Poetry, Painting and Music (trans. Thomas Nugent), 262, 265 n. 9 Duff, Dorothea (Sinclair) (b. 1739), Countess Fife, 79 n. 14; cause of Countess of Caithness v. Countess Fife and Earl Fife and Sir John Sinclair, 79–80 n. 14 Duff, Elizabeth (Dalrymple) (d. 1782), wife of William, 122 n. 3 Duff, James (1729–1809), 2nd E. Fife, 79 n. 14; cause of Countess of Caithness v. Countess Fife and Earl Fife and Sir John Sinclair, 79–80 n. 14 Duff, William (d. 1781), advocate, sheriffdepute of Ayrshire, 117 n. 8, 122 n. 3, 154, 188, 193 n. 5, 346 Dularte, Mr., Italian engineer, 356, 359 n. 16 Dumbarton Castle, 253 n. 2 Dumfries, 56 n. 39, 61 n. 70, 178 n. 3, 180 n. 5, 181, 183 n. 10, 186 n. 2; Coffee House, 186 and n. 2; description of, 183 n. 9; Tolbooth, 183 n. 1 Dumfries (estate), 101 n. 2; Dumfries House, 332 n. 1 Dumfries, 5th E. of. See Dalrymple-Crichton, William, 5th E. of Dumfries Dumfries, 6th E. of. See MacDowall-Crichton, Patrick, 6th E. of Dun, Rev. John (1724–92), minister of Auchinleck, 144, 144–45 n. 1, 146 n. 1, 153, 156, 163, 178; as JB’s first boyhood tutor, 144 n. 1; JB on, 144–45 n. 1 Dun, Robert (d. 1768), tailor in London, 293, 295 n. 4

Dunbar, 251, 252 n. 7 Dunbar, Mrs., vintner in Edinburgh, 123 and n. 2 Duncan, Capt. Adam (1731–1804), later V. Duncan of Camperdown, 71 n. 8 Dundalk, County Louth, 364 and n. 7; described, 364 n. 7 Dundas, Anne, dau. of Robert Dundas of Arniston the younger, later wife of George Buchan of Kelloe, 71 n. 8 Dundas, Elizabeth (Rannie) (1751–1843), wife of Henry, 93 n. 2 Dundas, Henrietta (1749–1832), dau. of Robert Dundas of Arniston the younger, later wife of Capt. Adam Duncan, 71 n. 8 Dundas, Henrietta (Baillie) (d. 1755), 1st wife of Robert Dundas of Arniston the younger, 71 n. 8 Dundas, Henry (1742–1811), SolicitorGeneral for Scotland, later V. Melville, 92, 93–94 n. 2, 97, 103, 114, 139–40 n. 5, 225 and n. 2, 236 and n. 1, 335 n. 12; JB alienates by publishing Letter to the People of Scotland, 93–94 n. 2; JB dines with, 245; refers to JB’s ‘masterly reply’ at court hearing, 97, 97–98 n. 3; career of, 93 n. 2 Dundas, James (1711–74), advocate, 118 n. 3 Dundas, James (1721–80), 24th Laird of Dundas, 71 n. 1 Dundas, Jean (Grant), 2nd wife of Robert Dundas of Arniston the younger, 76 n. 4, 122 and n. 2, 128, 130 n. 3, 240 Dundas, Margaret (d. 1795), dau. of Robert Dundas of Arniston the younger, later wife of Gen. John Scott of Balcomie, 71 n. 8 Dundas, Maj.-Gen. Ralph (d. 1789), 104 n. 1 Dundas, Robert (1758–1819), later Chief Baron of Exchequer in Scotland, son of Robert Dundas of Arniston the younger, 72 n. 6; possible reference to, 71 Dundas, Robert (1685–1753), of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session, 69 n. 2, 70 n. 3, 72 nn. 5, 6; possible reference to, 71 Dundas, Robert (1713–87), of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session, son of preceding, 15, 29, 69, 69–70 n. 2, 70 nn. 3–4, 71 and n. 8, 72 n. 5, 72–73 n.

405

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 405

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index 8, 73 n. 11, 76 n. 4, 77 n. 8, 85, 86 n. 1, 93 n. 2, 97 n. 3, 103, 122 and n. 2, 128, 130 n. 3, 209 n. 3, 209–10, 240; shows friendly concern for Lord Auchinleck, 207; on JB as advocate, 70 n. 2, 209; JB falls out with over Ayrshire politics, 70 n. 2; JB breakfasts with, 122, 237, 241; JB’s correspondence with, 69–70 n. 2, 76 n. 4; JB dines with, 233; conversation with JB about Douglas Cause, 27, 38, 209; speaks to JB about Justiciary Court, 75 and n. 2; JB’s reconciliation with, 70 n. 2, 77 n. 7; JB’s respect for, 69–70 n. 2; career of, 69 n. 2; on impertinent counsel, 75 and n. 2; in Douglas Cause, 24, 28, 209 n. 2, 318 and n. 3, 324, 327 n. 25; and house in Edinburgh, 86 n. 1; obituary in The Scots Magazine, 75 n. 2; as patron of Borthwick parish and Temple parish, 71–72 n. 2 Dundas, Thomas (1706–84), advocate, 195 and n. 3, 197 Dundas Castle, Linlithgowshire, 71 nn. 1–2 Dundonald, 4th E. of. See Cochrane, John, 4th E. of Dundonald Dundonald, 8th E. of. See Cochrane, Thomas, 8th E. of Dundonald Dunhill, George, apothecary in Pontefract, 50 n. 14 Dunlop-Wallace, Sir Thomas (1750–1835), of Craigie and Lochryan, Bt., author and playwright, 115 n. 7 Dunskey. See Blair, John, of Dunskey Dunskey, Wigtownshire, 119 n. 2, 233 n. 4, 351 n. 9 Dupont, Rev. Pierre Loumeau (1699–1786), Huguenot minister in Edinburgh, 136, 138 nn. 12, 13, 231 Durham, 235, 254 n. 5; cathedral, 235 n. 2 Easdale, Lord. See Graham, James, Lord Easdale East India Company, 121 n. 1, 129 n. 2, 239 n. 5 Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, 61 n. 70 Eden, Catherine, dau. of following, later wife of John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury, 235 and n. 4

Eden, Mary (Davidson) (d. 1794), Lady Eden, wife of following, 235 and n. 4 Eden, Sir Robert (c. 1718–55), of Windleston and West Aukland, Bt., 235 n. 4 EDINBURGH (and environs) Banks. Coutts Bros. & Co, 233 n. 4, 268 n. 27; John Coutts and Co., 55 n. 31, 233 n. 4, 267–68 n. 26, 268 n. 27 Buildings and Institutions. Abbey of Holyroodhouse, 134 n. 1; Blair’s Land (Parliament Close), 30 n. 215, 76 n. 6, 103 n. 1, 141 n. 2, 144 n. 1, 366; Castle, 98 n. 4, 110 n. 7, 248 n. 3, 319 n. 4; Charity Workhouse, 268 n. 27; City Guard-house, 222 n. 8; Custom House (Parliament Close), 30 and n. 215; Excise Office, 61 n. 68; Galloway House, 230 n. 1; High School, 217 n. 5; Jack’s Land (Canongate), 107 n. 3; Laigh Hall (Parliament House), 78 n. 3, 216 n. 1, 227 n. 1; Lauriston House, 216 n. 1; Lothian House (‘Lothian Hut’), 133 n. 4, 136 and n. 10, 137 n. 8; Luckenbooths, 78 n. 8, 226; New Tolbooth (or Council House), 75 n. 1, 99 n. 1, 113 n. 2; Palace of Holyroodhouse, 180 n. 14; Parliament House, 9–10, 22, 29, 105, 107 n. 3, 108 n. 4, 141 n. 2, 217, 220, 233, 237; Register Office, 58 n. 48; Royal Infirmary, 86, 88 n. 10, 96 nn. 2, 3, 137 n. 9, 268 n. 27; Tolbooth, 7–8, 100–01 n. 1, 110, 111 n. 5, 129, 150 n. 2, 169 n. 4 Churches and Chapels. Church of St. Giles, 30 n. 215, 31, 75 n. 1, 111 n. 3, 189 n. 3, 323 n. 2; French church, 138 n. 12; Greyfriars Churchyard, 217 n. 4; Mid (or Old) Kirk, 111 n. 3; New Church (or New Kirk or East Kirk), 31, 110, 111 n. 3, 237, 238 n. 2, 243, 247; ‘Porter’s Chapel’, 238 n. 2; St. Andrew’s Chapel, 238 n. 2; St. Paul’s Chapel, 237, 238–39 n. 2; Tolbooth Church, 76 n. 7, 111 n. 3, 115 n. 2, 121 n. 1; Tron Church, 217 n. 4, 323 n. 2; West St. Giles’ (or Little Kirk or Haddo’s Hole Kirk or New North Kirk), 111 n. 3, 143–44 n. 3

406

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 406

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Inns, Taverns and Coffee-houses. Clerihue’s tavern (‘Star and Garter’), 77, 78–79 n. 8, 80 n. 2, 89, 226, 236–37; Exchange Coffee-house, 118 and nn. 1, 3; Fortune’s Tavern, 221, 222 n. 8, 240; Graping Office, 136 and n. 2; Red Lion inn, 228, 229 n. 6; Thom’s tavern, 134 n. 1; Walker’s tavern, 121, 121–22 n. 2; Peter Williamson’s Coffee-house; 114, 115 n. 2 Miscellaneous. Back Stairs (or Parliament Stairs), 141 n. 4; Belleville (or Clockmill), 246–47 n. 2; Bristo Port, 326 n. 9; caddies, 250 n. 9; Canongatehead, 235 n. 2; Castle Hill, 130 n. 1, 210 n. 3, 232 n. 4; City Guard, 59 n. 55; Corstorphine, 120 n. 1; Cowgate Port, 229 n. 6; Cowgatehead, 274 n. 7; Cross (Market Cross (or ‘Mercat Cross’)), 28, 189 n. 3, 221, 222 n. 7, 239, 365; dancing assemblies, 98 n. 3, 237 n. 2; dinner hour, 77 n. 8; Drumsheugh, 85 n. 2, 86 n. 2; Duddingston, 96 n. 3, 248 n. 3; Duddingston Loch, 96–97 n. 3; Hope Park (the Meadow), 118 n. 3; music bells, 189 n. 3; New Town, 108 n. 3, 224 n. 1, 330 n. 48; piazza (Parliament Close), 136–37 n. 2; Prestonfield, 96 n. 3, 221, 250; riot after decision of House of Lords in Douglas Cause, 28–29; sedan chairs, 133 and n. 3; South Bridge, 233 n. 4; Town Council, 121 n. 1, 233 n. 4; Water Gate, 230 n. 2 Societies and Clubs. Edinburgh Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Sciences, 302 n. 2; club run by David Stewart Moncrieffe, 114 n. 3; Musical Society of Edinburgh, 98 n. 4, 120 n. 1; Philosophical Society, 127 n. 3; Royal College of Physicians, 77–78 n. 2, 95 nn. 1, 2, 96 n. 3, 185 n. 2, 254 n. 5; Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 137 n. 9; Royal Society of Edinburgh, 73 n. 9; Select Society, 126 n. 5; Soaping Club, 127 n. 4 Streets, Squares, Courts, Wynds and Closes. Adam Square, 86 n. 1; Adam’s Court, 86 n. 1, 127 n. 2, 233 n. 1, 237 n. 1; Advocate’s Close, 90 n. 3; Argyle

Square, 132 n. 2, 232 n. 1; Blair’s Close, 232 n. 5; Borthwick’s Close, 88, 89 n. 4, 90 n. 3, 129 n. 1; Boswell’s Court, 95 n. 1; Bristo Street, 77 n. 8; Buchan Court, 326 n. 9; Carrubber’s Close, 137 n. 5, 238 n. 2; Chessel’s Court (Canongate), 108 n. 3; Covenant Close, 224 n. 1; Cowgate, 99 n. 1, 217 n. 4, 366; George Square, 224 n. 1; Gosford’s Close, 123 and n. 2; Grassmarket, 100 n. 1, 113 n. 4, 151 n. 2, 226 n. 2, 249 n. 1; High Street, 75 n. 1, 100 n. 1, 115 n. 7; Horse Wynd, 114 n. 3, 230 n. 1; James’s Court (Lawnmarket), 51 n. 19, 87 n. 5, 107–08 n. 3, 133 n. 2, 144 nn. 5, 6, 312 n. 3, 318 n. 8, 326 nn. 8, 9, 335 n. 14; Liberton’s Wynd, 123 n. 2; Milne’s Square, 136 n. 5; New Street, 92 n. 4, 112–13 n. 18, 246 n. 1; Nicolson Street, 211 n. 2; Niddry’s Wynd, 110 n. 8; Old Stamp Office Close, 222 n. 8; Parliament Close, 108 n. 4, 115 n. 2, 136–37 n. 2, 268 n. 27, 323 n. 2; Paterson’s Court, 137 n. 5; Queen Street, 124 n. 1; Reid’s Close, 86 n. 2, 98 n. 4; Roxburgh’s Close, 228 n. 4; St. John’s Street, 102 n. 4, 229–30 n. 2; St. Mary’s Wynd, 229 n. 6; Skinner’s Close, 238 n. 2; Webster’s Close, 137 n. 4; West Bow, 221, 223 n. 16, 226 n. 6, 326 n. 9; Writers’ Court, 78 n. 8, 121–22 n. 2 Theatres. Canongate Theatre (also known as Canongate Concert Hall or Edinburgh Theatre), 51–52 n. 20, 132 n. 3, 197 n. 5, 230 n. 6, 250 n. 6; playhouse erected by Allan Ramsay in 1736, 238 n. 2; Theatre Royal, 33, 208 n. 7, 212–13, 230, 249, 325, 330 n. 50 Edinburgh Advertiser, The, 23, 158–59 n. 8 Edinburgh Almanack, The, 77 n. 8 Edinburgh Evening Courant, The, 244 n. 1, 306 n. 4 Edinburgh, University of, 1, 2 n. 8, 52 n. 21, 77–78 n. 2, 87 n. 5, 93 n. 2, 96 n. 2, 111 n. 3, 113 n. 1, 114 n. 1, 129 n. 2, 133 n. 2, 138 n. 11, 144 n. 1, 161 n. 5, 176 n. 4, 184 n. 1, 187 n. 1, 195 n. 3, 211 n. 2, 228 n. 2, 240 n. 5, 243 n. 8, 254 n. 5, 255 n. 9, 270 n. 3, 272, 276 nn. 13, 14, 288 n. 22, 327 n. 26; building of new College, 233 n. 4

407

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 407

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Edmondson, Thomas (c. 1739–1813), JB’s servant, 186 and n. 3, 207–08, 263 n. 1, 345; JB dismisses for impertinence, 186 n. 3 Edmondson, Mr., father of preceding, 186 and n. 4 Edward I (1239–1307), King of England, 182 n. 2 Edward II (1284–1327), King of England, 59 n. 48 Edward III (1312–77), King of England, 296 n. 18 Eglinton, 9th E. of. See Montgomerie, Alexander, 9th E. of Eglinton Eglinton, 10th E. of. See Montgomerie, Alexander, 10th E. of Eglinton Eglinton, 11th E. of. See Montgomerie, Hon. Archibald, later 11th E. of Eglinton Egremont, 2nd E. of. See Wyndham, Charles, 2nd E. of Egremont Elibank, 5th Lord. See Murray, Patrick, 5th Lord Elibank Elizabeth (1709–61), Empress of Russia, 184 n. 2 Elliock, Lord. See Veitch, James, Lord Elliock Elphinston, James (1721–1809), Edinburgh edition of SJ’s The Rambler, 74 n. 13 Elphinstone, Alexander (1738–95), of Glack, advocate, 176–77 n. 4 Episcopal Church of Scotland, 348 Erroll, 15th E. of. See Hay, James, 15th E. of Erroll Erskine, Alexander (d. 1756), 5th E. of Kellie, 84 n. 2, 98 n. 4 Erskine, Hon. Andrew (1740–93) (AE), 83, 84–85 n. 2, 86 n. 2, 97, 98 n. 4, 110, 118, 119 n. 4, 128 and n. 4, 132 n. 2, 134 and n. 1, 135, 365; characterized by JB, 85 n. 2; JB’s correspondence with, 126 n. 5, 134 n. 1; JB’s friendship with, 84–85 n. 2; JB on, 85 n. 2; and scandalous stories about Mrs. Dodds, 32, 139; visits David Hume, 318 n. 8; correspondence with JJ, 84–85 n. 2, 87 n. 5; military career of, 84–85 n. 2; suicide of, 85 n. 2 Writings. A Collection of Original Poems by the Rev. Mr. Blacklock and other Scotch Gentlemen and A Collection of Original

Poems by Scotch Gentlemen (AE’s contributions to), 85 n. 2; Critical Strictures on Elvira (with GD and JB), 85 n. 2; Letters between the Honourable Andrew Erskine, and James Boswell, Esq., 85 n. 2 Erskine, Lady Anne (1735–1802), sister of AE, 86 n. 2 Erskine, Archibald (1736–97), later 7th E. of Kellie, bro. of AE, 84 n. 2 Erskine, Charles (1680–1763), Lord Tinwald, 183 n. 8, 187 n. 1, 216 n. 2, 327 n. 26 Erskine, Elizabeth (Harestanes) (d. 1806), styled Lady Alva, widow of preceding, 216 and n. 2 Erskine, Euphemia (Cochrane) (?1693– ?1721), JB’s maternal grandmother, 89 n. 1, 140 n. 10 Erskine, James (1723–96), Lord Barjarg (later Lord Alva), 165 n. 4, 228, 232 and n. 1, 234 n. 1; career of, 165 n. 4; in Douglas Cause, 324, 327 n. 28 Erskine, Janet (Pitcairn) (1699–1776), Dowager Countess of Kellie, 84 n. 2, 118, 136 n. 2 Erskine, John (1695–1768), of Carnock, Institute of the Law of Scotland, 333 n. 9; Principles of the Law of Scotland, 333–34 n. 9 Erskine, Lt.-Col. John (1660–1737), of Alva, JB’s maternal grandfather, 211 n. 2 Erskine, Col. John (1662–1743), of Carnock, 211 n. 2 Erskine, Thomas Alexander (1732–81), 6th E. of Kellie, elder bro. of AE, 84 n. 2, 97, 98 n. 4, 139, 140 n. 12, 232 n. 5 Eton, 90 n. 4, 286 n. 3, 293–94; Eton College, 294, 295–96 n. 16, 296 n. 17 Eugene (1663–1736), P. of Savoy, 307 n. 1 Exchequer Court. See Court of Exchequer Faculty of Advocates. See Advocates, Faculty of Fairlie, William, of Fairlie, 61 n. 66 Farquhar, Alexander (d. c. 1779), of Gilmillscroft, 147 n. 1, 201; JB’s correspondence with, 147 n. 1 Farquhar, George (1676/7–1707), Irish playwright, The Recruiting Officer, 302, 303 n. 4

408

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 408

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Farquharson, Alexander (d. 1787), accountant in Edinburgh, 126 n. 5 Ferdinand (1721–92), P. of BrunswickLüneburg, 120 n. 1 Ferguson, Adam (1723–1816), Essay on the History of Civil Society, 217 n. 4 Ferguson, James (1700–77), Lord Pitfour: in trial of Mungo Campbell, 248 n. 3; first Scottish lawyer to insist on consultations in own house, 213 n. 3; on Western Circuit, 57–58 n. 47 Fergusson, Sir Adam (1733–1813), of Kilkerran, Bt., advocate, 70 n. 2, 105, 107 n. 2, 124, 154 n. 1, 176, 177 n. 10, 348; characterized, 107 n. 2; in Douglas Cause, 22–23, 105–07 n. 1, 189 n. 3, 348 n. 8; and SJ, 107 n. 2 Fergusson, George (1743–1827), of Hermand, advocate, later Lord Hermand, 176–77 n. 4 Fergusson, Sir James (1688–1759), of Kilkerran, Bt., Lord Kilkerran, 91 n. 4 Fergusson, Jean (Maitland) (1703–66), wife of preceding, 91 n. 4 Ferney, France: JB at, 53 n. 23 Ferrybridge, Yorkshire, 257, 258 n. 5; White Swan inn, 257, 258 n. 6 Fielding, Henry (1707–54), novelist, 279, 303 n. 1 Fielding, Sir John (1721–80), magistrate, half-bro. to preceding, 303 and n. 1, 303–04 n. 2 Fife, Countess. See Duff, Dorothea (Sinclair), Countess Fife Fife, 2nd E. See Duff, James, 2nd E. Fife Findlater, 6th E. of. See Ogilvy, James, 6th E. of Findlater Fingland. See Chalmers, James, of Fingland Fingland, Kirkcudbrightshire, 158 n. 7 Florence: JB in, 153 n. 2, 362 nn. 15, 16 Florus, Lucius Annaeus (fl. 2nd cent. a.d.), historian of Rome, 15; Epitome rerum Romanarum, 53 n. 22 Fontenelle, Bernard le Bovier de (1657– 1757), Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds, 356, 359 n. 17 Fontenoy, battle of, 205 n. 2, 210 n. 2, 253 n. 2 Foote, Samuel (1720–77), actor and theatre manager, 98 n. 4, 213 n. 5; The Minor, 256 n. 7

Forbes, Duncan (d. 1779), surgeon, 314 and n. 1 Forbes, Duncan (1685–1747), of Culloden, Lord President of the Court of Session, 212, 213 n. 2 Forbes, Sir William, James Hunter and Co. See Sir William Forbes, James Hunter and Co. Forbes, Sir William (1739–1806), of Monymusk (later of Pitsligo), Bt., banker and author, 82 n. 4, 126 n. 5, 233 n. 4, 239 n. 2, 263, 268 nn. 26, 27, 308, 318; on JB’s death, 208 n. 4; career of, 268 n. 27; Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, 268 n. 27 Fordyce, Alexander, banker, 125 n. 5 Fordyce, Catharine (Maxwell), wife of following, 115 n. 7, 125 n. 5, 127 n. 1 Fordyce, John (c. 1735–1809), of Ayton, 115 n. 7, 125 n. 5; JB on, 125 n. 5; probable reference to, 124 Fordyce, Malcolm and Co., banking house, 125 n. 5 Forfarshire: Michaelmas head court for, 206 n. 2; politics of in general election of 1768, 205–07 n. 2; Roll of Freeholders for, 205–07 n. 2, 219–20 n. 2; claims of nominal and fictitious votes in, 205–07 n. 2, 219–20 n. 2 Forrester, Sally, prostitute in London, 269 n. 33 Fort Duquesne, battle of, 103 n. 1 Fort George, 85 n. 2 Fort William, 359 n. 14 Foster, Dr. John (c. 1731–74), headmaster of Eton College, 295–96 n. 16 Foulis, Andrew (1712–75), printer and bookseller in Glasgow, 51 n. 20, 162 n. 1, 292 n. 17; prints JB’s Account of Corsica, 17, 244 n. 1; prints JB’s Dorando, 23 Foulis, Robert (1707–76), printer and bookseller in Glasgow, 51 n. 20, 162 and n. 1, 178 n. 3, 245–46 n. 1, 292 n. 17; prints JB’s Account of Corsica, 17, 244 n. 1; JB’s correspondence with, 167–68 n. 3, 179 n. 1, 245 n. 2; prints JB’s Dorando, 23; ‘scruples’ about JB’s draft of Dorando, 23 and n. 178, 162 n. 2, 167–68 n. 3, 179 n. 1

409

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 409

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Frackafield, Shetland, 317 n. 1 France, 21, 54 n. 29, 96 n. 2, 104 n. 1, 107 n. 3, 109 n. 6, 179 n. 2, 183 n. 10, 218 n. 1, 298 n. 10, 305 n. 5, 316 n. 3, 328 n. 32 Francis and Gibson, law firm in London, 264 n. 5 Franklin, Benjamin (1706–90): in London, 320, 321 n. 2; JB on, 321 n. 2 Fraser, Alexander (d. 1775), Lord Strichen, 215 and n. 1, 327 n. 16; career of, 215 n. 1; in Douglas Cause, 26, 324, 327 n. 18, 328 n. 32 Fraser (or Frazer), John (d. 1795), of Borlum, W.S., 211, 212 n. 7 Fraser, Mary (Arbuthnot), wife of following, 126 n. 6 Fraser, William, of Mains of Inverugie, 126 n. 6 Frazer (or Fraser), George (c. 1701–74), Deputy-Auditor of Excise in Edinburgh, 75, 77 and n. 8, 101, 211, 227, 227–28 n. 2, 236; JB on, 77 n. 8 Frazer, James (d. 1796), customs officer, 350, 351 n. 6 Frederick Louis (1707–51), P. of Wales, son of George II, 76 n. 7, 264 n. 3 Frederick William I (1688–1740), King of Prussia, 284, 287 n. 11; regiment of grenadiers, 284, 287 n. 11 Frederick II (‘the Great’) (1712–86), King of Prussia, 99 n. 1, 159 n. 1, 179 n. 2, 291 n. 2 Freemasonry: 98 n. 4, 211 n. 2; Canongate Kilwinning Lodge No. 2, 95 n. 1; Lodge Mother Kilwinning, 347 n. 2 Fullarton, Annabella (Craufurd) (d. 1826), wife of William Fullarton of Rosemount, 239 n. 5 Fullarton, Barbara (Blair), wife of William Fullarton of Fullarton the elder, 129 n. 2 Fullarton, Robert, of Overton, father of William Fullarton of Overton, 155 n. 1 Fullarton, William (d. 1758), of Fullarton, the elder, 129 n. 2 Fullarton, William (1754–1808), of Fullarton, son of preceding, 128, 129 n. 2; characterized, 129 n. 2 Writings. General View of the Agriculture of the County of Ayr, 129 n. 2; A

View of the English Interests in India, 129 n. 2; Statement, Letters and Documents, Respecting the Affairs of Trinidad, 129 n. 2 Fullarton, William (d. 1793), of Overton, 155 and n. 1, 160 Fullarton (or Fullerton or Fullartoun), William (d. 1805), of Rosemount, 237–38, 239 and n. 5, 240; and Catherine Blair, 237–38, 239 and n. 5; career of, 239 n. 5 Gainsborough, Humphrey (c. 1718–76), dissenting minister, engineer and inventor, 294, 295 n. 14 Gainsborough, Thomas (1727–88), artist, 295 n. 14, 319 n. 1 Gairdner, William (c. 1718–80), writer in Ayr, 190 n. 4 Galloway, 6th E. of. See Stewart, Alexander, 6th E. of Galloway Galloway hills, 174 Galston, Ayrshire, 142 and n. 3 Garden, Francis (1721–93), Lord Gardenstone, 92 and n. 1, 94 n. 4, 96 n. 3, 128 n. 4, 175–76 n. 1, 193 n. 5; praises JB’s pleading, 10, 92; career of, 94 n. 4; eccentricities of, 94 n. 4 Gardenstone, Lord. See Garden, Francis, Lord Gardenstone Gardiner, Robert, wright in Stewarton, 173–74 n. 1, 194 n. 1; trial of James Barclay and others (‘the Stewarton rioters’), 4, 38, 172–73, 173–74 n. 1, 194 and n. 1 Garlieston, Wigtownshire, 191 n. 7 Garrick, David (1717–79), actor, dramatist and theatre manager, 51 n. 20, 256 n. 5, 282 n. 25, 319 n. 1; praises JB’s Account of Corsica, 270 n. 1; JB’s correspondence with, 270 n. 1; and Shakespeare Jubilee at Stratford, 63 n. 74 Writings. Harlequin’s Invasion, 270 n. 1; Hearts of Oak, 270 n. 1; A Peep Behind the Curtain, 255, 256 n. 6 Gass (or Gasswater), Ayrshire, 174, 174–75 n. 12; quarries and mines at, 174, 175 n. 13 Gay, John (1685–1732), poet and dramatist, The Beggar’s Opera, 105–06 n. 1, 241 n. 7, 249, 249–50 n. 6; Polly, 264 n. 3

410

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 410

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Ged, Miss, Edinburgh landlady, 137 n. 5; possible reference to, 136 Geddes, Mr., acting constable, 84 n. 1 Geneva, 109 n. 6, 138 nn. 12, 13 Genoa, 298 n. 9; and Corsica, 11, 54 n. 29, 152–53 n. 1, 153 n. 3, 304 and n. 3, 305 n. 9, 319, 319–20 n. 1; JB on British passports granted to Genoese, 319–20 n. 1 Gentleman, Francis (1728–84), dramatist, essayist and actor, 45, 51–52 n. 20, 62 n. 71; JB’s correspondence with, 51–52 n. 20; dedicates Oroonoko to JB, 51 n. 20; JB’s friendship with, 51 n. 20 Writings. Dramatic Censor, 51 n. 20; Oroonoko, 45, 51–52 n. 20; A trip to the Moon, 47, 62 n. 71 Gentleman’s Magazine, The, 18, 90 n. 4, 214 n. 6, 275 n. 9, 293 n. 18, 310 George I (1660–1727), King of Great Britain and Ireland, 64 n. 80, 264 n. 3 George II (1683–1760), King of Great Britain and Ireland, 20, 179 n. 2, 235 n. 6, 264 n. 3, 330 n. 45, 339 n. 20 George III (1738–1820), King of Great Britain and Ireland, 77–78 n. 2, 100 n. 1, 108–09 n. 6, 113 n. 4, 222 n. 6, 264 n. 3, 278, 298 n. 10, 305 n. 5, 317 n. 2, 334 n. 10, 337 n. 5, 339 n. 20, 357 n. 4; Proclamation of 1763 in respect of Corsica, 15, 320 n. 1 Gerard, Anne (Mason) (other married name Anne Brett) (1667/8–1753), Countess of Macclesfield, 321, 322 n. 2 Gerard, Charles (c. 1659–1701), 2nd E. of Macclesfield, 322 n. 2 Germany, 59 n. 48, 120 n. 1, 178, 235 n. 6 Giant’s Causeway, County Antrim, 365 Giardini, Felice (1716–96), Italian violinist and composer, 296, 297 n. 5; Ruth, 297 n. 5 Gibb, Anna (bap. 1759), dau. of James Gibb, tavern-keeper in Auchinleck village, 201 n. 4 Gibb, Charles (bap. 1773), son of James Gibb, tavern-keeper in Auchinleck village, 201–02 n. 4 Gibb, James, of Dalblair, 161 n. 7 Gibb, James (b. 1729), of Dalblair, son of preceding, 160, 161 n. 7

Gibb, James (fl. 1757–73), tavern-keeper in Auchinleck village, 201, 201–02 n. 4; commonly referred to as ‘Provost’ or ‘Cooper’ Gibb, 201–02 n. 4 Gibb, John (bap. 1757), son of preceding, 201 n. 4 Gibb, Margaret (McKerrow), wife of James Gibb, tavern-keeper in Auchinleck village, 201 n. 4 Gibbon, Edward (1737–94), historian, 18, 261 n. 6; Autobiography of Edward Gibbon, 281 n. 11; Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 285 n. 2 Gibbs, James (1682–1754), architect, 292 n. 14 Gibraltar, 84–85 n. 2, 99 n. 1, 132 n. 2, 163 n. 2, 320 n. 1 Gibson, Alexander (d. 1782), tenant of Barglachan farm on the Auchinleck estate, 201 n. 3 Gibson, James (d. 1768), attorney in London, 262, 264 n. 5 Gibson, James (c. 1694–1772), merchant in Ayr, 347 n. 3; possible reference to as landlord at Ayr, 194 n. 12, 346, 347 n. 5 Gilchrist, Miss, Edinburgh landlady, 137 n. 5; possible refefence to, 136 Gilkie, James, writer in Edinburgh, 118 and n. 3, 149, 149–50 n. 2; JB’s correspondence with, 149 n. 2; cause of James Gilkie v. William Wallace, 118 and n. 3, 149–50 n. 2, 150 Gillon, John (unidentified), 46 Gilmillscroft, Ayrshire, 147 n. 1 Gilmour, Sir Alexander (c. 1737–92), of Craigmillar, Bt., M.P., 35, 214, 215 n. 2, 221, 229, 238 Gisborne, Gen. James (c. 1722–78), 1st husband of Mary Ann Boyd, 366–67 n. 13 Gisborne, James Frederick (bap. 1773–89), son of preceding, 366–67 n. 13 Glasgow, 45, 50 n. 15, 52 n. 20, 55 n. 37, 57–58 n. 47, 59 n. 49, 92 n. 5, 137 n. 9, 162 n. 1, 166 n. 1, 167 n. 3, 179 n. 1, 224 n. 5, 345; College Green, 291 n. 9; dancing assembly at, 184 n. 2; Gallowgate, 57 n. 47

411

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 411

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Glasgow, George (1729–94), of Nethermains, merchant in Glasgow, 122 n. 5; cause of Thomas Millar v. George Glasgow and Samuel Stewart, 122 n. 5 Glasgow, University of, 1, 45–46, 52 nn. 20, 21, 55 n. 35, 60 nn. 58, 61, 61 n. 65, 87 n. 7, 161 n. 5, 254 n. 4, 259 n. 11, 285 n. 2, 289, 291 n. 9, 301 n. 9, 356 nn. 1, 3 Glassite sect, 95 n. 1 Glen App, Ayrshire, 350, 351 n. 1 Glencairn, 12th E of. See Cunningham, William, 12th E. of Glencairn Glendonwyn, Agnes, dau. of Robert Glendonwyn of Glendonwyn and Parton, 181 n. 17 Glendonwyn, Agnes (Gordon) (d. 1791), wife of William Glendonwyn of Glendonwyn, 181 n. 17 Glendonwyn, Charles, bro. of William Glendonwyn of Glendonwyn, 178, 181 n. 17 Glendonwyn, Elisabeth, dau. of Robert Glendonwyn of Glendonwyn and Parton, 181 n. 17 Glendonwyn, James, son of Robert Glendonwyn of Glendonwyn and Parton, 181 n. 17 Glendonwyn, Margaret, dau. of Robert Glendonwyn of Glendonwyn and Parton, 181 n. 17 Glendonwyn, Mary, dau. of Robert Glendonwyn of Glendonwyn and Parton, 181 n. 17 Glendonwyn, Mary (Neilson), wife of following, 181 n. 17 Glendonwyn, Robert (d. 1766), of Glendonwyn and Parton, 181 n. 17 Glendonwyn, Robert, son of preceding, 181 n. 17 Glendonwyn, Simon, son of Robert Glendonwyn of Glendonwyn and Parton, 181 n. 17 Glendonwyn, William (d. 1809), of Glendonwyn, 178, 181 n. 17 Glenmuir, vale of, 155 n. 1 Glyn, Sir Richard (1711–73), of Gaunts, Bt., M.P., 263, 267 n. 22 Godefroi, M., innkeeper in Paris, 163 and n. 1, 190 n. 3

Godred (d. 1187), King of Man, 353 n. 17 Goldie, Rev. John (1727–88), minister of Temple, 72 n. 2 Goldsmith, Oliver (?1728–74), dramatist, novelist and poet, 265 n. 12; ‘A Biographical Memoir, supposed to be written by the Ordinary of Newgate’, 265 n. 12; The Good–Natured Man, 279, 282 nn. 25, 27 Gordon, Alexander (d. 1728), 2nd D. of Gordon, 122 n. 3 Gordon, Alexander (1743–1827), 4th D. of Gordon, 115 n. 7 Gordon, Alexander (d. 1774), of Crogo, writer in Edinburgh, 181 n. 17 Gordon, Hon. Alexander (1739–92), advocate, later Lord Rockville, 121, 122 n. 3, 208 n. 3, 232; JB’s friendship with, 122 n. 3; career of, 122 n. 3 Gordon, Lady Anne (Campbell) (1594– 1638), Marchioness of Huntly, 63 n. 75 Gordon, Anne (Duff) (d. 1811), Countess of Dumfries, wife of Hon. Alexander Gordon, 122 n. 3, 208 n. 3 Gordon, Lady Anne (Gordon) (d. 1791), Countess of Aberdeen, 122 n. 3 Gordon, Catharine, dau. of Thomas Gordon, younger of Earlston, later wife of Capt. Alexander Stewart, 196, 197 n. 6 Gordon, Charles (d. 1681), 1st E. of Aboyne, 47, 63 n. 75; and story of graceless neighbour brought in sack, 47; lines on Andrew Gray, 47, 63–64 n. 76 Gordon, Cosmo (d. 1800), advocate, later Baron of Exchequer, 124 and n. 2 Gordon, George (c. 1590–1649), 2nd M. of Huntly, 63 n. 75 Gordon, Gilbert (d. 1789), excise collector at Dumfries, 184 and n. 1; A Collection of Original Poems by the Rev. Mr. Blacklock and other Scotch Gentlemen (contribution to), 184 n. 1 Gordon, Jane (Maxwell) (c. 1749–1812), Duchess of Gordon, 114, 115 n. 7, 125 n. 5, 127 n. 1 Gordon, John (d. 1789), of Balmoor, W.S., 85, 86 n. 3, 100; JB’s friendship with, 86 n. 3

412

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 412

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Gordon, Katharine (Campbell), wife of Thomas Gordon, younger of Earlston, 197 n. 6 Gordon, Maj. Peter, 185 n. 5; possible reference to, 185 Gordon, Maj. Robert, 186 n. 5; possible reference to, 185 Gordon, Sir Robert (1696–1772), of Gordonstoun, Bt., 121 n. 1; cause of Countess of Sutherland v. Sir Robert Gordon, 121 n. 1 Gordon, Thomas (1713–67), younger of Earlston, 197 n. 6 Gordon, William (c. 1679–1745), 2nd E. of Aberdeen, 122 n. 3 Gothofredus, Jacobus (Jacques Godefroy) (1587–1652), Fontes Quatuor Juris Civilis, 56 n. 40 Gould, Elizabeth ‘Betty’ (Cochrane) Hamilton (c. 1735–99), 2nd wife of following, 306 n. 5 Gould, Lt.-Col. Nathaniel (c. 1730–86), 305, 306 n. 5, 308, 317; JB on, 306 n. 5 Gower, Lord. See Leveson-Gower, Granville, E. Gower Graevius, Joannes Georgius (1632–1703), Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiæ, 16, 46, 57 n. 43, 69, 72 n. 3 Graham (or Graeme), Arthur (d. 1777), at Irvine, 346, 346–47 n. 1 Graham, George, of Flemington, 206–07 n. 2; cause of George Skene v. George Graham, 206–07 n. 2 Graham, James (1696–1750), Lord Easdale, 138 n. 13 Graham, Katherine (Hepburn), wife of preceding, 138 n. 13 Graham, Miss, Edinburgh landlady, 137 n. 5; possible reference to, 136 Graham, Mrs., wife of Arthur, 346 Grange. See Johnston, John, of Grange Grant, Sir Alexander (d. 1772), of Dalvey, merchant, 212 n. 7; cause of Sir Alexander Grant of Dalvey v. Lt.-Col. Hector Munro, 212 n. 7 Grant, Grizel (Miller) (d. 1792), wife of following, 122 n. 2, 209 n. 4 Grant, William (1701–64), Lord Prestongrange, 122 n. 2, 209 n. 4

Gray, Rev. Andrew (d. bef. 19 Mar. 1670), minister of Coull, 47, 63–64 n. 76 Gray, Thomas (1716–71), poet: on JB’s Account of Corsica, 315 n. 5; ‘Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College’, 294, 296 n. 20 Great Berkhamsted: St. Peter’s Church, 314 n. 10 Green, John, geographer, 293 n. 18 Greenwich, 144 n. 6 Gregory, Dr. John (1724–73), physician and author, 77, 77–78 n. 2, 125; JB on, 78 n. 2 Writings. A Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man, with those of the Animal World, 78 n. 2; Elements of the Practice of Physic, 78 n. 2; A Father’s Legacy to his Daughters, 78 n. 2; Lectures on the Duties and Qualifications of a Physician, 78 n. 2; Observations on the Duties and Offices of a Physician and on the Method of Prosecuting Enquiries in Philosophy, 78 n. 2 Grenada, 218 n. 1 Grenville, George (1712–70), statesman, 109 n. 6, 223 n. 15 Grey Abbey, ruin, 352, 353–54 n. 17 Grose, Francis (?1731–91), Antiquities of Ireland, 353–54 n. 17; Antiquities of Scotland, 346 n. 5 Grueber, Mr., 1st husband of Marie Angélique Madeleine de la Cherois, 355 n. 2 Guiffardière (or Guiffardiere), Rev. Charles de (c. 1740–1810), 88 n. 7, 312, 313–14 n. 10; JB’s correspondence with, 313–14 n. 10; shocks JB with levity, 313 n. 10; JB on, 313 n. 10 Gulliehill, Dumfriesshire, 178, 181 n. 16 Guthrie, George, wright in Garlieston, 4, 38, 155 n. 2, 191 n. 7; trial of Robert Johnston and Others (‘the Galloway rioters’), 4, 38, 155 n. 2, 184 n. 1, 190, 191 and n. 7, 191–92 n. 1 Guthrie, John, burgess of Prestwick, 194–95 n. 3, 235 n. 4; cause of John Guthrie and Others v. James Blair and Others, 235 n. 2; cause of John Guthrie and Others v. Magistrates of Prestwick, 194–95 n. 3, 237 n. 1

413

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 413

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Guthrie, William (?1708–70), historian and political journalist, 284, 293 n. 18, 309; JB meets, 19, 272, 275 n. 9; praises JB’s Account of Corsica, 272; review of JB’s Account of Corsica, 19, 272, 275–76 n. 10; review of JB’s Essence of the Douglas Cause, 26, 272, 275 n. 10; review of JB’s Letters of The Right Honourable Lady Jane Douglas, 27, 272, 275 n. 10; on Douglas Cause, 272, 275 n. 10; on juries in civil causes, 272; on Oglethorpe, 309; on John Wilkes, 272 Writings. Complete List of the English Peerage, 275 n. 9; General History of Scotland, 275 n. 9; General History of the World, 275 n. 9; Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar, 275 n. 9; History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to 1688, 275 n. 9; Old England, or, The Constitutional Journal, 272, 275 n. 9; Serious and Cleanly Meditations upon an House-of-Office (a Boghouse), 275 n. 9 Haddington, 169 n. 6, 251 Haddo-Rattray, Aberdeenshire, 125–26 n. 5 Hadrian (a.d. 76–138), Roman emperor, Historia Augusta (lines quoted in), 46, 56 n. 41 Hague, The, 103; JB in, 104 n. 2, 107 n. 1, 110 n. 7, 143 n. 2, 356–57 n. 4; JB attends Ambassador’s ball, 357 n. 4; Ambassador’s chapel in, 356 n. 4; French church in, 138 n. 12 Hailes, Lord. See Dalrymple, Sir David, Bt., Lord Hailes Hair, Ivie (d. c. 1776), of Rankinston, writer, 319 n. 3; possible reference to, 319 Halbert, William (fl. 1764–1819), schoolmaster in parish of Auchinleck, 201, 202 n. 10 Haldane, George Cockburn. See Cockburn, George, of Gleneagles Haldane, Capt. Robert (1705–67), uncle of preceding, 275 n. 7 Hall, Benjamin (d. 1825), sub-librarian at Bodleian Library, later rector of Marcross, 289, 292 n. 13 Hall, Dr. John (d. 1793), physician at Newcastle, 254 n. 4

Hallglenmuir. See Mitchell, Alexander, of Hallglenmuir Hallglenmuir, Ayrshire, 145 n. 2, 174 Hallgreen, Kincardineshire, 205, 220 n.2 Hamilton, Alexander (1739–1802), surgeon, 243 n. 8; JB’s correspondence with, 243 n. 8 Hamilton, Alexander (1689–1758), of Dechmont and Pencaitland, W.S., 130 n. 3 Hamilton, Archibald (d. 1793), publisher, 309 and n. 6 Hamilton, Archibald (1694–1774), of Rosehall, advocate, 65 n. 85 Hamilton, Lord Archibald (1673–1754), naval officer and politician, 261 n. 5 Hamilton, Sir Archibald, of Rosehall, 65 n. 85 Hamilton, Elizabeth (Dalrymple) (1733– 79), widow of William Hamilton of Bangour, 229, 229–30 n. 2, 230–31 Hamilton, James (1712–89), 8th E. of Abercorn, 96–97 n. 3, 248 n. 3; cause of Sir Alexander Dick v. The Earl of Abercorn, 10, 96–97 n. 3 Hamilton, James (d. 1668), 1st of Dalziel, 65 n. 86 Hamilton, James (d. 1777), 5th Lord Belhaven and Stenton, advocate, 130 n. 3 Hamilton, James (1724–58), 6th D. of Hamilton, 276 n. 15 Hamilton, James George Hamilton (1755– 69), 7th D. of Hamilton: JB on death of, 22 n. 170; in Douglas Cause, 21–22, 105 n. 1, 107 n. 2, 163 n. 1, 177 n. 10, 189 n. 3, 209 n. 2, 264 n. 3, 276 n. 15, 324–25, 327 nn. 19, 28, 328 nn. 30, 32, 329 n. 38 Hamilton, Jean (Henderson) (d. 1653), 2nd wife of James Hamilton, 1st of Dalziel, 65 n. 86 Hamilton, Jean (Mitchell), wife of Robert Hamilton of Bourtreehill, 211 n. 5, 231 n. 5 Hamilton, John (1688–1724), 130 n. 3 Hamilton, John (1739–1821), of Sundrum, 160, 161 n. 5 Hamilton, Margaret (Hamilton) (d. 1704), 65 n. 85 Hamilton, Marion (Dalrymple), wife of Archibald Hamilton of Rosehall, 65 n. 85

414

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 414

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Hamilton, Mary (Kinloch), wife of Alexander Hamilton of Dechmont and Pencaitland, 130 n. 3 Hamilton, Robert (1698–1773), of Bourtreehill, 196 and n. 4, 211 n. 5, 231 n. 5 Hamilton, William (1704–54), of Bangour, poet and supporter of the Jacobite cause, 229 n. 2; JB has high opinion of, 85 n. 2; ‘To Lady Mary Montgomery’, 230 n. 1 Hamilton family, 272 Hanno (fl. 3rd cent. b.c.), Carthaginian commander, 52 n. 22 Hanover, JB’s travels to, 179 n. 2 Hardwicke, 1st E. of. See Yorke, Philip, 1st E. of Hardwicke Hardwicke, 2nd E. of. See Yorke, Philip, 2nd E. of Hardwicke Harley, Edward (c. 1699–1755), 3rd E. of Oxford, 266 n. 19 Harley, Edward (1726–90), 4th E. of Oxford, 332, 334 n. 10 Harley, Martha (Morgan) (d. 1774), Countess of Oxford, 266 n. 19 Harley, Hon. Thomas (1730–1804), M.P., Lord Mayor of London, 263, 266 n. 19, 297 n. 4 Harris (or Harrison), Jack, waiter, 274 n. 5; Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies, 274 nn. 5, 6 Harwich: JB’s journey with SJ to, 279, 282 n. 34 Hasse, Johann Adolph (‘Il Sassone’) (1699–1783), German composer, 45, 50 n. 10; Artaserse, 50 n. 10; L’Olimpiade, 50 n. 10 Hastie, John, schoolmaster of Campbeltown, 7; cause of John Hastie v. Patrick Campbell of Knap and Others, 7 Hay, Agnes (Mudie) (1711–86), wife of James Hay of Cocklaw, 226 n. 7, 242 n. 5 Hay, Ann (Dick) (1743–97), wife of Matthew Hay, 192 n. 3 Hay, Charles (1747–1811), advocate, later Lord Newton, 242–43 n. 5 Hay, James (1726–78), 15th E. of Erroll, 125 n. 5 Hay, James (d. 1779), W.S., 226 n. 7

Hay, James (d. 1771), of Cocklaw, W.S., 226 n. 7, 242, 242–43 n. 5, probable reference to, 225; JB on, 242 Hay, James (c. 1751–88), later W.S., son of preceding, 226 n. 7 Hay, John (c. 1695–1762), 4th M. of Tweeddale, 159 n. 1 Hay, Margaret (Hay) (1686–1753), wife of Lord William Hay, 226 n. 7 Hay, Matthew (bap. 1740–80), of Plewlands, 191, 192 n. 3, 192–94 n. 5, 196 Hay, Robert (c. 1745–67), soldier, 4, 38, 99 and n. 1, 100 and nn. 1, 1, 110–111, 247; JB’s petition to King seeking clemency, 99 n. 1, 100 n. 1; hanged, 150, 151 n. 2; mother of, 111, 112 n. 11; trial of, 99 and n. 1, 100 and n. 1; wife of, 111 Hay, Thomas (1710–87), 9th E. of Kinnoull, 97 and n. 1, 242 Hay, William (d. 1776), of Crawfordton, W.S., 118, 119 n. 1, 185, 236 Hay, Brig.-Gen. Lord William (d. 1723), of Newhall, 226 n. 7 Hay, Maj. William (d. 1781), 130 n. 2 Heatly, William, smith in Newton, 80–81 n. 2; cause of Hugh Cairncross v. William Heatly and Others, 6, 80–81 n. 2, 138, 139 n. 4 Henderson, Anna (Halkat), 2nd wife of Sir John Henderson of Fordell, 65 n. 86 Henderson, David, of Stempster, 219 n. 2, 236 n. 1; cause of David Henderson of Stempster v. Sir John Sinclair of Mey, 218, 219 n. 2, 226 n. 4, 236 n. 1 Henderson, Sir John (d. 1618), of Fordell, 4th Bt., 65 n. 86 Henderson, Matthew (1737–88), of Tannochside, antiquary, 97, 98 n. 6, 221, 308 n. 1 Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, 277, 281 n. 10, 294; digging machine at, 294, 295 n. 12; Independent Chapel, 295 n. 14 Henry I (1069–1135), King of England, 296 n. 21 Henry IV (1366–1413), King of England, 264 n. 4 Henry VI (1421–71), King of England, 294, 295 n. 16, 296 n. 17

415

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 415

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Herbert, Henry (1734–94), 10th E. of Pembroke, 318, 319 n. 1 Hermenches, Constant d’. See Constant de Rebeque, David-Louis, B. de Heron, Jean (Home) (b. c. 1745; d. after 1782), dau. of Lord Kames, 183 n. 10 Heron, Margaret (MacKie), mother of following, 186 and n. 1; JB on, 186 n. 1 Heron, Patrick (c. 1735–1803), of Kirroughtree, 183 n. 10, 186 n. 1 Herries, Robert (later Sir Robert, Kt.) (1730–1815), merchant, 263, 267–68 n. 26, 268 n. 27, 308 Hertford, 1st E. of. See Seymour-Conway, Francis, 1st E. of Hertford Hervey, James (1714–58), Church of England clergyman and devotional writer, 153 and n. 1; JB delighted by, 153 n. 1; SJ disgusted by, 153 n. 1; Meditations and Contemplations, 153 n. 1 Hewit, Helen, companion of Lady Jane Douglas: in Douglas Cause, 20, 282 n. 32 Hickman-Windsor, Alice (Clavering) (1705–76), wife of following, 332 n. 1 Hickman-Windsor, Herbert (1707–58), 2nd V. Windsor of Blackcastle, 332 n. 1 High Court of Justiciary. See Court of Justiciary Hill, Wills (1718–93), 1st E. of Hillsborough, later 1st M. of Downshire, 360, 363 n. 17 Hillsborough, County Down, 360, 363 n. 17; churchyard at, 360; described, 360, 363 n. 17; inn at, 360, 363 n. 17 Hillsborough, 1st E. of. See Hill, Wills, 1st E. of Hillsborough Hillslap (or Hillslop or Hilslop), Roxburghshire, 80 n. 2 Hoadly, Benjamin (1706–57), The Suspicious Husband, 212, 213 n. 4, 279, 282 n. 30 Hobbes, Thomas (1588–1679), philosopher, 315 n. 4 Hoggan, Capt. James (d. c. 1780), 365; JB’s friendship with, 365 Holdernesse, 3rd E. of. See D’Arcy, Robert, 3rd E. of Holdernesse Holland, 2, 103 n. 1, 143 n. 2, 168, 169–70 n. 7, 282 n. 34, 355 n. 2; University of Groningen, 211 n. 2

Holyroodhouse, Lord. See Bothwell, Henry, styled Lord Holyroodhouse Home, Agatha (Drummond) (1711—95), wife of following, 183 n. 10 Home, Henry (1696–1782), Lord Kames, 111, 112–13 n. 18, 175 n. 1, 183 n. 10, 208 n. 7, 228 n. 2, 242, 310 n. 7; JB as protégé of, 112 n. 18; career of, 112 n. 18; in Douglas Cause, 27, 324, 326 n. 11 Writings. Dictionary of the Decisions of the Court of Session, 112 n. 18; Elements of Criticism, 112 n. 18, 217 n. 4, 320, 321 n. 5; Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion, 112 n. 18; Historical Law-Tracts, 112 n. 18; Principles of Equity, 112 n. 18 Home, John (1722–1808), playwright, Douglas, 197 n. 5 Home, Patrick (1728–1808), of Billie (or Billy), advocate, 310, 311 n. 4, 318, 319 and n. 1 Homer (fl. 850 b.c.), Greek poet, 108 n. 3, 162 n. 1; Odyssey, 47, 61 nn. 62–65 Hood, John, designer of ships, 307 n. 1; possible reference to, 306, 308, 319 Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 b.c.), Roman poet, 49 n. 7, 72 n. 4 Writings. Epistles, 105 n. 1, 135, 136 n. 6, 140 n. 6, 171 and n. 6, 227 n. 2; Odes, 139, 140 n. 6, 142, 143 n. 2, 148–49 n. 2, 149 n. 2, 293–94, 295 n. 10; Satires, 140 n. 6 Horn, John (d. 1743), of Horn and Westerhall, advocate, father of Lady Drummore, 65 n. 85 Houghton Library, Harvard Universty, 147 n. 1 House of Commons, 267 n. 21, 304 n. 2, 321 n. 2, 332, 348 n. 8; and Corsica, 305 n. 5; general election of 1768, 39, 109 n. 6, 205–07 n. 2, 212 n. 7, 252 n. 3, 266 nn. 18–20, 267 nn. 21–23, 334–35 n. 12; general election of 1774, 70 n. 2; bill to reduce number of Lords of Session, 93 n. 2, 306 n. 4; and parliamentary privilege, 109 n. 6, 335 n. 16; committee to inquire into state of English prisons, 307 n. 1; and John Wilkes, 109–10 n. 6; Yorke’s journal of debates in, 305 n. 4

416

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 416

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index House of Lords, 7, 9 n. 59, 21, 22 n. 170, 27, 114–15 n. 1, 121 n. 1, 205–06 n. 2, 220 n. 2, 223 n. 15, 304, 305 nn. 4, 5, 332, 334–35 n. 12, 336 n. 20; appeal in cause of Hugh Cairncross v. William Heatly and Others, 81 n. 2; delivers judgment in Douglas Cause, 28, 329 n. 38, 330 n. 45, 346 n. 4; Committee for Privileges, 333 n. 5 Houston, Sir John, uncle of Houston Stewart-Nicolson, 134 n. 1 Houy, John, 114–15 n. 1; cause of Archibald Johnston v. Thomas and John Houy, 114, 114–15 n. 1 Houy, Thomas, 114–15 n. 1; cause of Archibald Johnston v. Thomas and John Houy, 114, 114–15 n. 1 Huguenots, 138 n. 12, 218 n. 1, 355 n. 2, 361 n. 8 Hume, David (1711–76), philosopher and historian, 105, 107–08 n. 3, 111, 112 n. 13, 216 n. 3, 299 n. 2, 310 and n. 7, 311 nn. 5, 8, 312, 313 n. 5, 315, 316 n. 3; JB on, 74 n. 12, 107–08 n. 3, 311 n. 5; undertakes to arrange publication of JB’s Account of Corsica, 16, 111, 112 n. 14; JB’s friendship with, 107 n. 3; on JB, 108 n. 3; on JB’s song The Hamilton Cause, 22, 105; and scepticism about truth of Christian religion, 73–74 n. 12; on Christianity, 310; and Lord Kames, 112 n. 18; and Macpherson’s Fingal, 288 n. 24; and Rousseau, 107 n. 3; as Under-Secretary of State at the Northern Department, 107 n. 3 Writings. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, 73 n. 12; An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, 73 n. 12; Essays, Moral and Political, 73 n. 12; Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, 73 n. 12; Four Dissertations, 73 n. 12; The History of England, From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the revolution in 1688, 287–88 n. 19; Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, 73 n. 12; Three Essays, Moral and Political, 73 n. 12; A Treatise of Human Nature, 73 n. 12 Hume, David (1757–1838), Commentaries on the Law of Scotland Respecting Crimes, 224 n. 5

Hunt, William, receiver of estate, 264 n. 5 Hunter, James (later Sir James Hunter-Blair, Bt.) (1741–87), partner in John Coutts & Co., 233 and n. 4, 268 nn. 26, 27, 351 n. 9 Hunter, Jean (or Jane) (Blair) (bap. 1746– 1817), wife of preceding, 233 n. 4, 350, 351 n. 9 Hunter, Marion (Bell) (d. 1779), 2nd wife of Rev. Robert Hunter, 178, 180 n. 10 Hunter, Robert (d. 1779), Professor of Greek at Edinburgh University, 87 n. 5, 113, 113–14 n. 1, 144 n. 5, 272, 365; JB on, 114 n. 1 Hunter, Rev. Robert (1695–1770), minister of Kirkconnel, 159 n. 9, 178, 180 n. 10; JB on, 178 Hunter, Robert (c. 1694–1744), younger of Polmood, 232 n. 2 Hunter, Robert, of Thurston, 212 n. 4 Hunter, Veronica (Murray) (d. 1769), widow of Robert Hunter, younger of Polmood, 232 and n. 2 Huntly, 2nd M. of. See Gordon, George, 2nd M. of Huntly Huntly, Marchioness of. See Gordon, Lady Anne (Campbell), Marchioness of Huntly Hyde, Henry (1638–1709), 2nd E. of Clarendon, State Letters and Diary (ed. Dr. John Douglas), 338 n. 7 Hyde, Henry (1672–1753), 4th E. of Clarendon, 182 n. 7 Hyndford, 4th E. of. See Carmichael, John, of Castlecraig, 4th E. of Hyndford Hyndford, family of, 272 India, 121 n. 1, 212 n. 7, 239 n. 5, 302 n. 2; Calcutta, 239 n. 5; Madras, 212 n. 7; Patna Agency, 239 n. 5; Pondicherry, 355 n. 2 Inveraray, 153 n. 1 Inverness, 83 n. 1 Inverness, Magistrates of, 83–84 n. 1; cause of Poor Robert Ross v. Magistrates of Inverness, 83–84 n. 1 Ireland, 100 n. 1, 236 n. 6, 291 n. 9; JB’s jaunt to, 37, 39, 343–65; French Huguenot refugees in, 361 n. 8; Quakerism in, 360, 361 n. 9

417

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 417

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Irvine, Ayrshire, 346 and n. 1, 347 n. 2 Irvine (or Irving), Robert (c. 1721–1800), of Woodhall, Justice of the Peace, 234 n. 1; cause of Duke of Queensberry and Robert Irvine of Woodhall v. John Carruthers of Hardrigs, 234, 234–35 n. 1 Italy, 257, 258 n. 7, 298 n. 10, 302 n. 2; Cascata delle Marmore at Terni, 176, 177 n. 11 Ives, Sidney, ‘Boswell Argues a Cause: Smith, Steel, and “Actio Redhibitoria”’, 147–48 n. 1 Jamaica, 196 n. 4, 206 n. 2, 211 n. 5, 266 n. 20, 267 n. 21; British Hospital, 206 n. 2 James, Hugh (unidentified), 264–65 n. 6 James I (1394–1437), King of Scotland, 309, 310 n. 12 James IV (1473–1513), King of Scotland, 59 n. 48, 157 n. 2 James I/VI (1566–1625), King of England, Scotland and Ireland, 119 n. 6 James Francis Edward Stewart (1688–1766), P. (‘Old Pretender’), 318 n. 8 James, waiter at Ayr, 346 James and –––––––, ship, 350 James and Mary, ship, 351 n. 11; possible reference to, 350 James Wilson and Son, 168 n. 1 Jamieson, Robert (d. 1808), W.S., 114, 115 n. 5 Jelly, John, of Rathmullen, father of Susanna (Jelly) Montgomery, 354 n. 22 Jersey, island of: social and economic unrest, 104 n. 1 Jerusalem, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm (1709–89), 104–05 n. 2 Jervas, Charles (?1675–1739), translator, 146 n. 2 Jervise, Andrew (1820–78), Epitaphs and Inscriptions, 63 n. 76 John (1166–1216), King of England, 358 n. 11 John XXII (?1244–1334), Pope, 59 n. 48 Johnson, Paul, The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815–1830, 88 n. 9 Johnson, Samuel (1709–84) (SJ), 11, 13, 85 n. 2, 91–92 n. 4, 95 and n. 1, 97 n. 3, 107 n. 2, 110 n. 7, 144 n. 6, 216

n. 1, 218 n. 1, 297, 308 n. 4, 310, 311 n. 8, 319 n. 1, 320–21, 350; on adultery, 290; on future life of animals, 285; visits Auchinleck, 198 n. 1, 199 nn. 2, 9, 202 n. 4; confrontation with Lord Auchinleck triggered by coin of Oliver Cromwell, 199 n. 9; praises Baretti, 290; on Bell’s Travels, 289; on Hugh Blair, 285, 288 n. 24; on JB’s Account of Corsica, 19, 311, 311–12 n. 9; on JB’s prospects as advocate, 293 n. 25; JB’s correspondence with, 56 n. 40, 277, 280 n. 2, 311–12 n. 9; journey with JB to Harwich, 279, 282 n. 34; JB consults on cause of John Hastie v. Patrick Campbell of Knap and Others, 7; criticizes JB’s Latin in law thesis, 46, 56 n. 40; JB meets for first time, 298 n. 8; promises to visit western isles of Scotland with JB, 279, 282 n. 35; on George Buchanan, 144 n. 6; helps Robert Chambers prepare lectures, 281 n. 13; on characters of nature and characters of manners, 279; on chastity in women, 290; on punishing children, 308 n. 1; on Samuel Clarke, 315 n. 4; on Douglas Cause, 279; on Du Halde’s China, 289; visits Edinburgh, 13, 92 n. 4, 95 n. 1, 97 n. 3, 110 n. 7, 216 n. 1, 288 n. 23; and The Gentleman’s Magazine, 293 n. 18; on Giant’s Causeway, 365; praises Goldsmith’s Good-Natured Man, 279; on William Guthrie, 284; and tour to the Hebrides, 92 n. 4, 95 n. 1, 97 n. 3, 102–03 n. 4, 110 n. 7, 126 n. 5, 153 n. 1, 198 n. 1, 199 nn. 2, 9, 216 n. 1, 223 n. 12, 283 n. 36, 288 n. 23; on Hume, 284; chambers in Inner Temple Lane, 290, 293 n. 19; on Lord Kames, 284; allows no character to Kelly’s False Delicacy, 279; and William Kenrick, 316 nn. 1, 2; introduced to Bennet Langton, 338 n. 8; on legal ethics, 39, 277–78; on popular liberty, 311, 312 n. 11; on Lichfield, 284; on Macaulay’s History of St. Kilda, 280, 283 n. 36; and Catharine Macaulay, 299–300 n. 2; and Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat, 223 n. 12; and Lord Monboddo, 102–03 n. 4; on Messenger Monsey, 336; in Oxford, 218

418

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 418

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index n. 1, 276–80, 283–85, 288–90, 292 n. 16; expatiates on advantages of Oxford for learning, 284; on difference between voluntary praise and praise on compulsion, 279; on William Robertson, 285; on whether scorpion kills itself, 288–89; has prejudice against Scotland, 284; sups in company of Scottish literati, 336–37; on social subordination, 318 n. 2; on hibernation of swallows, 289, 291 n. 7; on Jonathan Swift, 337; on James Thomson, 336, 338 n. 17; on general warrants, 290; on migration of woodcocks, 289; on Belle de Zuylen, 290 Writings. Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage, 322 n. 2; Dictionary of the English Language, 49 n. 8, 74 n. 13, 291 n. 6; Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 97 n. 3, 198 n. 1, 199 n. 2; ‘Prologue at the Opening of the Theatre in Drury Lane’, 330 n. 52; The Rambler, 71, 74 n. 13, 279, 282 n. 28, 338 n. 8; Vanity of Human Wishes, 289 Johnston, Agnes, sister of JJ, possible reference to, 135 Johnston, Archibald (c. 1723–1815), merchant in Kelso, 114–15 n. 1; cause of Archibald Johnston v. Thomas and John Houy, 114, 114–15 n. 1 Johnston, Archibald (b. 1766), son of preceding, 115 n. 1 Johnston, Christian (Houy), 1st wife of Archibald Johnston, the elder, 115 n. 1 Johnston, Dr. Daniel (d. 1779), surgeon in Cumnock, 131 n. 3, 146 and n. 1, 150, 154, 156, 160, 160–61 n. 4, 174, 198, 201, 344; JB on, 146 Johnston (James) & Co, 79 n. 10; cause of James Johnston & Co. v. Quintin Hamilton and John McAulay, 79 n. 10 Johnston, Janet (Thomson), 2nd wife of Archibald Johnston, the elder, 115 n. 1 Johnston, John (c. 1729–86), of Grange (JJ), writer in Edinburgh, 36, 61 n. 61, 84–85 n. 2, 85, 86 n. 3, 87 n. 5, 113, 118, 119 nn. 2, 4, 125, 128, 133, 135–36, 228, 234 n. 1, 251; JB’s correspondence with, 2, 3 and n. 10, 7, 30 n. 215, 74 n. 13, 82 n. 4, 87 n. 5, 95 n. 1, 108 n. 6, 119

n. 2, 127 n. 3, 128 n. 4, 135 n. 1, 137 n. 9, 141 n. 2, 178 n. 1, 189 n. 3, 196 n. 4, 198 n. 3, 214 n. 1, 230 n. 6, 238 n. 2, 243 n. 8, 254 n. 5, 261 n. 1, 291 n. 9, 297 n. 2, 343, 344 nn. 9, 12, 14; JB’s friendship with, 87 n. 5; JB’s ‘Journal of my jaunt, harvest 1762’ written for, 61 n. 61; JB sends original manuscript of London journal of 1762–63 to, 87 n. 5, 128 n. 4; JB on, 87 n. 5; prone to fits of depression, 87 n. 5; resides at house in Roxburgh’s Close, 228 n. 4 Johnston (or Johnstoun), John, writer in Glasgow, 58 n. 47; JB’s correspondence with, 58 n. 47 Johnston, Robert, excise officer in Whithorn, 4, 38, 155 n. 2, 191 n. 7; trial of Robert Johnston and Others (‘the Galloway rioters’), 4, 38, 155 n. 2, 184 n. 1, 190, 191 and n. 7, 191–92 n. 1 Johnston, William, of Scrogs (or Scroggs), 47, 61–62 n. 70; cause of William Johnston v. John Paxton, 47, 61–62 n. 70; JB refers to cause as very tedious, 62 n. 70 Johnston, Mrs. (not certainly identified), possible reference to Mary (Macky (or McKie or Mackie)) Johnston, wife of Dr. Daniel Johnston, 160, 160–61 n. 4 Johnstone, George (1720–92), 3rd M. of Annandale, 228 n. 2; cause of Rev. Mr. Richard Brown, Minister of Lochmaben v. Heritors, or Kindly Tenants, of Lochmaben, 227–28 n. 2, 236 n. 5 Jura, 174 Justices of the Peace, 147 n.1 Justiciary Court. See Court of Justiciary Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenalis) (fl. 1st– 2nd cent. a.d.), Roman poet, Satires, 181, 182 n. 4, 308 and n. 4 Kames, Lord. See Home, Henry, Lord Kames Kames (estate), 112 n. 18 Kant, Immanuel (1724–1804), German philosopher, 290–91 n. 2 Karl Friedrich (1728–1811), Margrave of Baden-Durlach, 74 n. 12 Karlsruhe: JB visits, 74 n. 12 Kassel: JB visits, 222 n. 11

419

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 419

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Kay, John (1742–1826), Series of Original Portraits, 59 n. 55 Keirs, Ayrshire, 116 n. 8 Keith, George (c. 1693–1778), 10th E. Marischal of Scotland, 161 n. 10, 178, 179–80 n. 2, 254 n. 7; calls JB the ‘great Colonello’, 178, 180 n. 4; JB’s correspondence with, 178, 179 n. 2, 180 n. 3; JB’s fondness for, 179–80 n. 2; JB travels to Potsdam with, 179 n. 2, 180 n. 4; sends JB present of standish, 178, 180 n. 3; JB acts for in contemplated proceedings against York Buildings Company, 179 n. 2; career of, 179 n. 2 Keith Hall, Aberdeenshire, 179 n. 2 Kellie, 5th E. of. See Erskine, Alexander, 5th E. of Kellie Kellie, 6th E. of. See Erskine, Thomas Alexander, 6th E. of Kellie Kellie, Dowager Countess of. See Erskine, Janet (Pitcairn), Dowager Countess of Kellie Kellie, Fife, 85 n. 2 Kelly, Hugh (1739–77), Irish writer and attorney, 256 n. 5; False Delicacy, 255, 256 n. 5, 279, 282 n. 25 Kelso, 115 n. 1 Kennedy, David (d. 1792), advocate, later 10th E. of Cassillis, 70 n. 2, 223 n. 15, 242, 319 and nn. 2, 4, 320, 351 n. 9; JB on, 319 n. 2 Kennedy, John (1700–59), 8th E. of Cassillis, 350, 351 n. 7 Kennedy, Robert, merchant in Liverpool, 349 n. 17 Kennedy, Sir Thomas (d. 1775), of Culzean, Bt., 9th E. of Cassillis, 70 n. 2, 116 n. 8, 223 n. 15, 351 n. 9 Kennet, Lord. See Bruce, Robert, Lord Kennet Kenrick, William (c. 1725–79), author, 315, 316 n. 1, 321; Epistle to James Boswell Esq., Occasioned by his Having Transmitted the Moral Writings of Dr. Samuel Johnson to Pascal Paoli, 315, 316 nn. 1, 2; A Review of Doctor Johnson’s New Edition of Shakespeare, 316 n. 1 Ker (or Kerr), James (c. 1711–81), Joint Keeper of the Records, 216 and n. 1; on Union of 1707, 216 n. 1

Ker, Jean Janet (Kerr) (1712–87), Dowager Marchioness of Lothian, widow of following, 217 n. 5, 231 and n. 1 Ker, William (d. 1767), 3rd M. of Lothian, 133 and n. 4, 136, 137 n. 8, 231 n. 1 Kerr, Agnes, at Ayr, 346, 347 n. 7 Kerr, Lady Caroline (D’Arcy) (d. 1778), Marchioness of Lothian, 210 n. 2 Kerr, Lord Charles (d. 1735), of Cramond, 88 n. 2, 231 n. 1, 232 n. 2 Kerr, Henrietta Anne (1718–94), dau. of preceding, 88 and n. 2, 217 n. 5, 231 n. 1 Kerr, Hugh, writer in Paisley, 164–66 n. 4; cause of Hugh Kerr v. Margaret and Lilias Thomson, 10, 79 n. 11, 80 n. 1, 163, 164–66 n. 4, 171 n. 4 Kerr, Janet (Murray) (d. 1755), wife of Lord Charles Kerr, 88 n. 2, 231 n. 1, 232 n. 2 Kerr (or Ker), Lady Jean (Campbell) (d. 1700), Marchioness of Lothian, 88 n. 2 Kerr (or Ker), Robert (1636–1703), 4th E. and 1st M. of Lothian, 88 n. 2 Kerr, William Henry (c. 1710–75), 4th M. of Lothian, 210 n. 2, 231; JB dines with, 250 Kerr, William John (1737–1815), 5th M. of Lothian, 210 n. 2 Kerr, Miss, dau. of Agnes, 346 Key, Rev. John (d. 1748), minister of Coylton, 255 n. 9 Kilkerran, Lord. See Fergusson, Sir James, of Kilkerran, Bt., Lord Kilkerran Kilmarnock, 152 n. 2, 153, 155, 168 and n. 1, 168–69 n. 2, 173, 195 n. 9; JB sees carpet manufactory and tannery, 173; magistrates of, 195 n. 9, 196 n. 1 Kilmarnock, magistrates and town council of, 168–69 n. 2; cause of Earl of Glencairn and William Paterson v. The Magistrates and Town Council of Kilmarnock, 168–69 n. 2 Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, 164 nn. 2, 3, 165 n. 4; Hill of Kilmaurs, 165 n. 4, 171 and n. 4 Kilwinning, Ayrshire, 347 n. 2 Kincaid, Alexander (1710–77), bookseller and printer in Edinburgh, 216, 217 and nn. 4, 5

420

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 420

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Kincaid, Alexander (1752–77), son of preceding, 217 n. 5 Kincaid, Caroline (Kerr) (d. 1774), wife of Alexander Kincaid, the elder, 216, 217 and n. 5, 231 n. 1 Kincardine, 2nd E. of. See Bruce, Alexander, 2nd E. of Kincardine Kincardine, 7th E. of. See Bruce, Thomas, 7th E. of Kincardine Kingcausie estate, Kincardineshire, 81 n. 4, 347 n. 8 King’s Case hospital, Ayrshire, 190, 191 n. 6 Kinloch, Lt. Archibald Gordon (d. 1800), 168, 169 nn. 4, 5, 170 n. 7 Kinloch, David (c. 1710–95), of Gilmerton, later Bt., father of preceding, 168, 169 n. 6, 170 n. 7; JB’s correspondence with, 168, 169 n. 6 Kinloch, Francis (d. 1795), son of preceding, 169 n. 4 Kinloch, Sir Francis (1676–1747), of Gilmerton, 3rd Bt., 130 n. 3 Kinloch, George Farquhar (d. 1800), merchant in London, 7 and n. 46 Kinloch, Mary (Rocheid) (d. 1749), wife of Sir Francis Kinloch of Gilmerton, 130 n. 3 Kinnaird, Charles (d. 1767), 6th Lord Kinnaird of Inchture, 227 and n. 6 Kinnaird, Jeany, natural dau. of preceding, 34–35, 227 Kinnoull, 9th E. of. See Hay, Thomas, 9th E. of Kinnoull Kirkconnel, Dumfriesshire, 178, 180 n. 9, 188 Kirkpatrick, Isabel (Lockhart), wife of Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, 2nd Bt. of Closeburn, 187 n. 1 Kirkpatrick, Sir James (d. 1804), of Closeburn, 4th Bt., 188 n. 2 Kirkpatrick, Jean (Erskine) (d. 1752), wife of William Kirkpatrick of Shaws, 187 n. 1 Kirkpatrick, Sir Thomas, of Closeburn, 2nd Bt., father of William Kirkpatrick of Shaws, 187 n. 1 Kirkpatrick, Sir Thomas (1704–71), of Closeburn, 3rd Bt., bro. of following, 187 and n. 1, 187–88 n. 2; JB on, 187; reckless extravagance of, 187–88 n. 2

Kirkpatrick, William (c. 1705–77), of Shaws, advocate, 187 and n. 1 Kirktonholm, Lanarkshire, 82 n. 5 Knights Templars, 71 n. 2 Knockroon, Ayrshire, 160 n. 3; JB purchases, 160 n. 3 La Fontaine, Jean de (1621–95), Fables, 54–55 n. 29 La Marre, Pier: in Douglas Cause, 20, 329 n. 42 Labrador, Pedro (1755–1852), Spanish diplomat, 88 n. 9 Lacy, Hugh de (d. 1242), Anglo-Norman knight, 358 n. 11 Ladykirk, Ayrshire, 190 and n. 4 Lagan, River, 361 nn. 3, 7, 8, 363 n. 17 Lainshaw, Ayrshire, 37, 82 n. 5, 171 n. 1; JB’s fondness for, 171 n. 1; JB and MM affected by sale of, 171 n. 1 Lainshaw, family of, 345, 346 n. 1 Laird of Logan, The, 154 n. 1 L’Amour, Catherine de, possible name of actress (partner of James Love) with whom JB had affair, 249–50 n. 6 Langton, Bennet (c. 1736–1801), 336, 338 n. 8; JB’s correspondence with, 92 n. 4 Laurie, Christian (Erskine) (1715–55), wife of Sir Robert Laurie, 4th Bt. of Maxwelton, 183 n. 8, 184 n. 3, 187 n. 1 Laurie, Elizabeth Maria (or Mary Elizabeth) (Ruthven), wife of Capt. Robert Laurie, 183, 184 n. 3, 185–86 Laurie, Rev. George (d. 1799), minister of Loudoun, 116 n. 8 Laurie, Rev. James (d. 1764), minister of Kirkmichael, 116 n. 8, 285 n. 2 Laurie (or Lawrie), Rev. John (d. 1710), minister of Auchinleck, 285 n. 2 Laurie, Robert (1764–1848) (later Admiral Sir Robert, 6th Bt. of Maxwelton), son of following, 184 n. 3 Laurie, Capt. Robert (c. 1738–1804) (later Gen. Sir Robert, 5th Bt. of Maxwelton), 184 n. 3 Laurie, Sir Robert (d. 1779), of Maxwelton, 4th Bt., 181, 183 n. 8, 184 n. 3, 187 n. 1, 236 n. 2 Lausanne, 138 n. 13, 244–45 n. 1

421

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 421

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Lawrie, John (fl. 1771–93), JB’s law clerk, 63 n. 76, 152 n. 1, 208 n. 3 Lawson, Peter (or Patrick), labourer, 248 n. 3 Le Brune, Mme.: in Douglas Cause, 20, 190 n. 3 Leadbetter, Stiff (c. 1705–66), architect and builder, 276 n. 26 Leghorn, 153 nn. 2, 3, 231 n. 2, 268 n. 28 Leiden, 91 n. 4, 95 n. 1, 138 n. 13; University of, 108 n. 6, 270 n. 3, 276 n. 13 Leinster: Quakerism in, 361 n. 9 Leipzig, University of: JB visits, 166 n. 10 Leith, 98 n. 4, 245 n. 2 Leith, Mrs., landlady in Edinburgh, 89, 90 n. 3 Leslie, David (1722–1802), 6th E. of Leven and 5th E. of Melville, 211 and n. 2 Leslie, Mary (Erskine) (d. 1723), Countess of Leven, 211 n. 2 Leven, 6th E. of. See Leslie, David, 6th E. of Leven Leveson-Gower, George Granville (1758– 1833), styled V. Trentham, later D. of Sutherland, 121 n. 1 Leveson-Gower, Granville (1721–1803), E. Gower, later 1st M. of Stafford: speech in Douglas Cause in House of Lords, 329 n. 38 Lindsay, George (1728/9–81), 17th E. of Crawford, 211–12 n. 5 Lindsay, Hercules (d. 1761), Professor of Civil Law at Glasgow University, 52 n. 21, 291 n. 9 Lindsay, Jean (Hamilton) (1735/6–1809), Countess of Crawford, 211, 211–12 n. 5, 231 and n. 5, 233, 245–46, 249 Lindsay, Robert (c. 1532–c. 1586), of Pitscottie, 118, 119 n. 5; The Historie and Cronicles of Scotland, 119 n. 5 Lisburn, 360, 361 n. 7; JB’s description of, 360; French Huguenot refugees in, 361 n. 8; manufacture of linen in, 361 n. 8 Livingston, Lilias (Robertson), wife of Rev. William Livingston, 95–96 n. 2 Livingston, Mary (Robertson) (c. 1735– 1816), wife of following, 96 n. 2

Livingston, Dr. Thomas (1728–85), Aberdeen physician, 95, 95–96 n. 2 Livingston, Rev. William (1690–1751), Episcopal minister, father of preceding, 95–96 n. 2 Livingston, Linlithgowshire, 141 and n. 5 Livy (Titus Livius) (c. 59 b.c.–a.d. 17), Roman historian, 14, 15, 45; Ab Urbe Condita, 52–53 n. 22 Lloyd’s List, manuscript ledgers relating to shipping movements and casualties, 319, 320 n. 3 Lloyd’s Register 1764–66, 351 n. 11; Lloyd’s Register 1768–71, 351 n. 11 Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, 227, 227–28 n. 2; presbytery of, 228 n. 2 Lochmaben, heritors, or kindly tenants, of, 227–28 n. 2; treat given by, 236 and n. 5; cause of Rev. Mr. Richard Brown, Minister of Lochmaben v. Heritors, or Kindly Tenants, of Lochmaben, 227–28 n. 2, 236 n. 5 Lochryan, Wigtownshire, 350, 351 n. 3; JB’s description of, 350 Locke, John (1632–1704), philosopher, 315 n. 4 Lockhart, Alexander (1700–82), of Craighouse, Dean of Faculty of Advocates, later Lord Covington, 10, 76 n. 3, 127 and n. 2, 139, 176 n. 4, 220, 226; JB on, 220; career of, 127 n. 2; characterized, 127 n. 2 Logan (estate), Ayrshire, 154 n. 1 Logan, Hugh (1739–1802), of Logan (‘Laird of Logan’), 145 n. 2, 153, 154 n. 1, 161 n. 4; JB on, 154 n. 1 Logan, John, tenant of farms in Ayrshire, 114, 115–18 n. 8; cause of John Logan v. James McHarg and James McHarg, 114, 115–18 n. 8 Logan, Margaret (McAdam), wife of William Logan of Camlarg, the younger, 194 n. 11 Logan, William, of Camlarg, 194 n. 11 Logan, William, of Camlarg, son of preceding, 191, 194 n. 11; JB on, 191 Logan, William (b. 1717; d. after Oct. 1795), of Castlemains, writer in Ayr, 50 n. 12, 101 n. 3, 191; probable reference to, 45, 47

422

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 422

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index LONDON (and environs) Banks. Bank of England, 218 n. 1, 264 n. 5; Herries and Co., 268 nn. 26, 28; Herries, Cochrane & Co., 267–68 n. 26; London Exchange Banking Company, 268 n. 26; Vere, Glyn and Hallifax, 267 n. 22 Buildings and Institutions. British Museum, 127–28 n. 3; Chelsea Hospital, 173 n. 1, 336, 338 n. 18; Court of Aldermen of the City of London, 265 n. 11; Court of Chancery, 264 n. 5; Court of Common Council, 267 n. 23; Court of Common Pleas, 109 n. 6; Court of King’s Bench, 109 n. 6, 326 n. 2; Green Canister, 261–62 n. 10; Gresham College, 280 n. 7; Guildhall, 39, 263, 266 nn. 17, 20; Guy’s Hospital, 269 n. 31; Inner Temple, 336 n. 20; King’s Bench Prison, 110 n. 6; Lincoln’s Inn, 124 n. 1, 264 n. 5, 317 n. 4, 326 n. 2; Mansion House, 297 n. 4; Medical Asylum, 254 n. 5; Middle Temple, 218 n. 1, 281 n. 13, 317 n. 2, 348 n. 8; Middlesex Hospital, 269 n. 32; Old Bailey, 264 n. 5, 265 n. 6, 337; Queensberry House, 264 n. 3; St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, 319 n. 1; St. George’s Hospital, 307 n. 2; St. James’s Palace, 314 n. 10; Stationers’ Hall, 292 n. 11; Tower of London, 109 n. 6; Westminster Hall, 109 n. 6; Westminster School, 326 n. 2 Churches and Chapels. Bavarian Chapel, 259 n. 11; Church of St. George, Hanover Square, 263 n. 1; Portland Chapel, 272, 276 n. 26; Protestant French chapel, 314 n. 10; St. Paul’s Churchyard, 298 n. 9; Westminster Abbey, 296 n. 17, 298 n. 11 Inns, Taverns and Coffee-houses. Crown and Anchor Tavern, 336, 337 n. 3; Bob Derry’s Cider Cellar, 293, 295 n. 7; Half Moon inn, 261 n. 9; Mitre Tavern, 74 n. 13; Percy Coffee House, 272, 275 n. 8; Queen’s Arms, 298 n. 9; Shakespear’s Head, 274 n. 5; Star and Garter tavern (New Bond Street), 260, 261 n. 4; Star and Garter tavern (Pall Mall), 261 n. 4; Thatched House Tavern, 261 n. 5; Turk’s Head coffee-house, 282 n. 35

Miscellaneous. Blackfriars bridge, 267 n. 23; Borough of Southwark, 263, 269 n. 30, 277; general election of 1768, 39, 263, 266 n. 18; Hyde Park, 109 n. 6; insurrections of sailors, 319, 319–20 n. 1; London Methodists, 265 n. 12; Ordinary of Newgate, 265 n. 11; paving of the streets, 251 and n. 3; riot after Wilkes elected for Middlesex, 296, 297 n. 4, 316, 317 n. 6; Tyburn, 39, 262, 264 n. 4, 337 Societies and Clubs. Beefsteak Club, 108–09 n. 6; Corsican Club, 298 n. 9, 312, 313 n. 8; Literary Club, 281 n. 13; Romans Club, 261 and n. 6; Royal Academy, 338 n. 8; Royal College of Physicians, 269 n. 32, 271 n. 3, 302 n. 14, 307 n. 2; Royal Society, 77–78 n. 2, 124 n. 1, 127–28 n. 3, 184 n. 1, 271 n. 3, 307 n. 2, 317 n. 2; Society of Artists, 318 n. 8 Streets, Squares, Courts and Districts. Arundel Street, 317 n. 1, 337 n. 3; Berkeley Square, 297 n. 4; Bloomsbury Square, 278, 326 n. 2; Bow Street, 303 n. 1; Burlington Gardens, 264 n. 3; Cheapside, 124 n. 5; Chelsea, 269 n. 33; Cook’s Grounds (Chelsea), 323 n. 2; Covent Garden, 271, 274 n. 5, 295 n. 7, 296 n. 1; Edgeware Road, 264 n. 4; Great Piazza, 296, 297 n. 1; Great Portland Street, 276 n. 26; Great Russell Street, 222 n. 11; Greek Street (Soho), 302 n. 2; Half Moon Street (Piccadilly), 261 and n. 9; Half Moon Street (off the Strand), 261–62 n. 10; Hanover Square, 263 n. 1; Inner Temple Lane, 293 n. 19; Lancaster Court, 295 n. 4; Limehouse, 307 n. 1; Lombard Street, 267 n. 22; Long Acre, 278, 281 n. 22; Maiden Lane, 295 n. 7; Milford Lane, 337 n. 3; New Bond Street, 261 nn. 4, 5; Newington Green, 299, 301 n. 4; Nightingale Lane (Wapping), 266 n. 16; Oxford Court (Cannon Street), 268 n. 26; Oxford Street, 238 n. 2; Pall Mall, 271 n. 3; the Poultry, 265 n. 13; Queen Anne Street (Cavendish Square), 296; Queen Anne Street East, 298 n. 10;

423

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 423

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Queen Street (Mayfair), 331 n. 1; Rathbone Place, 272, 275 n. 8; Russell Street (Covent Garden), 298 n. 8; St. James’s Square (Pall Mall), 115 n. 7; St. James’s Street, 261 n. 5; the Strand, 261, 263, 295 n. 4, 336, 337 n. 3; Watling Street, 319 n. 1; Westminster, 296, 303 n. 1 Theatres. Covent Garden Theatre, 213 nn. 4, 5, 241 n. 7, 282 n. 25; King’s Theatre, Haymarket, 50 n. 10; Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 213 n. 4, 241 n. 7, 256 nn. 5, 6, 282 nn. 25, 26, 303 n. 4 London Chronicle, The, 15, 91–92 n. 4, 98 n. 6, 123 n. 4, 132 and n. 3, 159 n. 8, 217 n. 5, 268 n. 28, 274 n. 7, 298 n. 9, 299, 301 n. 5, 305–06 n. 1, 330 n. 49, 366 n. 2 London Magazine, The, 49 n. 7, 62 n. 72, 63 n. 74, 64–65 n. 84, 134 n. 1, 169–70 n. 7, 216 n. 2, 266 n. 16, 330 n. 49 Londonderry, 1st M. of. See Stewart, Robert, 1st M. of Londonderry Londonderry, 2nd M. of. See Stewart, Robert, 2nd M. of Londonderry Longbridge End, 252, 253 n. 6 Longinus (fl. 1st cent. a.d.), On the Sublime, 287 n. 12 Lord Justice-Clerk. See Miller, Thomas, of Barskimming Lord President. See Dundas, Robert, of Arniston, the younger Lothian, 4th E. and 1st M. of. See Kerr (or Ker), Robert, 4th E. and 1st M. of Lothian Lothian, 3rd M. of. See Ker, William, 3rd M. of Lothian Lothian, 4th M. of. See Kerr, William Henry, 4th M. of Lothian Lothian, 5th M. of. See Kerr, William John, 5th M. of Lothian Lothian, Marchioness of. See Kerr (or Ker), Lady Jean (Campbell), Marchioness of Lothian Loudoun, 4th E. of. See Campbell, John, 4th E. of Loudoun Loudoun Hill, Ayrshire, 147 n. 1 Lough Neagh, County Down, 358 n. 13, 364 n. 3, 365 Love, Elizabeth (Hooper) (d. 1783), wife of following, 250 n. 6

Love, James (Dance) (1721–74), actor, author and manager, 250 n. 6 Lowe, John (d. 1778), innkeeper at Ferrybridge, 257, 258 n. 6 Lowthian, George, proprietor of the Coffee House, Dumfries, 186 n. 2 Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) (a.d. 39–65), Latin poet, Pharsalia, 324, 328 n. 33 Lucian (c. a.d. 125–c. 190), satirist, 312; Alexander, 313 n. 6 Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus) (fl. 1st cent. b.c.), Latin poet and philosopher, De rerum natura, 105, 108 n. 5 Lumisden, Andrew (1720–1801), Jacobite politician, 318 n. 8; JB on, 318 n. 8 Luther, Martin (1483–1546), German theologian and reformer, 164, 166 n. 10 Lyon, John (1737–76), 9th E. of Strathmore and Kinghorne, 205 n. 2 Lyon, Mary Eleanor (Bowes) (1749–1800), Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, 205 n. 2 Lyon, Thomas (1741–96), of Pitpointy (and later of Hallgreen) and of Hetton House, Durham, M.P., 205–07 n. 2, 220 n. 2 Lyon, Thomas (1704–53), 8th E. of Strathmore and Kinghorne, father of preceding, 205 n. 2 Lyons: JB in, 268–69 n. 28 Lyttelton, George (1709–73), 1st B. Lyttelton, 270 n. 1, 304 and n. 2; on JB’s Account of Corsica, 304 n. 2; JB’s correspondence with, 304 n. 2; on Christian religion, 312, 313 n. 4; on Corsica, 304, 305 n. 5; and Douglas Cause, 325, 329 n. 38; and David Hume, 312, 313 n. 5; on Paoli, 304 n. 2; History of the Life of King Henry the Second, 304 n. 2; Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul, 309 and n. 4 McAdam, James (1716/7–1770), Laird of Waterhead, 127 and n. 1, 159, 163 n. 2, 194 n. 11 McAdam, James (1746–c. 1767), son of preceding, 163 and n. 2, 191, 194

424

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 424

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index McAdam, John (d. 1790), of Craigengillan, 117–18 n. 8, 128, 154, 191, 346; JB on, 117–18 n. 8 McAdam, Susannah (Cochrane), wife of James McAdam, the younger, 163 n. 2 Macaulay, Catharine (Sawbridge) (1731– 91), historian and political writer, 244 n. 1, 270 n. 1, 299, 299–300 n. 2, 301 n. 6; supports American colonists, 299 n. 2; and JB’s Account of Corsica, 300 n. 3; JB’s correspondence with, 300 n. 3; JB on, 299, 300 n. 2; volunteers constitution for Corsica, 300 nn. 2, 3; republican views of, 299 n. 2; The History of England, 299–300 n. 2; Loose Remarks, 300 n. 3 Macaulay, John, sailor, 99 n. 1, 100 n. 1 Macaulay, Rev. Kenneth (1723/4–1779), minister of Cawdor, 280, 283 n. 36; The History of St. Kilda, 280, 283 n. 36 Macaulay, Thomas Babington (1800–59), B. Macaulay, historian and politician, 315 n. 5 Macbride, Dr. David (1726–78), 353 n. 9 Macbride, Capt. (later Admiral) John (c. 1735–1800), 353 n. 9 Macbride, Mary Ann (d. 1801), sister of David and John, 351, 353 n. 9, 359–60, 363 Macclesfield, Countess of. See Gerard, Anne (Mason), Countess of Macclesfield Macclesfield, 2nd E. of. See Gerard, Charles, 2nd E. of Macclesfield McClure, David, bro. of following, 193 n. 5; JB’s correspondence with, 193 n. 5 McClure (or Mclure or MacLure), John, merchant in Ayr, 191, 192–93 n. 5, 196 McCormick, Rev. Joseph (1733–99), minister of Temple, 73 n. 9; possible reference to, 71 Macdonald, Sir Alexander (1711–46), of Sleat, 7th Bt., father of Archibald, 317 n. 4 Macdonald, Sir Alexander (c. 1745–95), of Sleat, 9th Bt., later B. Macdonald of Slate, 222–23 n. 12, 271; entertains JB and SJ on tour to Hebrides, 223 n. 12 Macdonald, Archibald (later Sir Archibald, Kt. and Bt.) (1747–1826), 317 and n. 4; JB on, 317 n. 4

Macdonald (Elizabeth Diana Bosville), Lady. See Bosville, Elizabeth Diana Macdonald, Sir James (c. 1742–66), 8th Bt. of Sleat, 283–84, 285–86 n. 3, 286 n. 6 Macdonald, Margaret (Montgomerie) (d. 1799), 2nd wife of Sir Alexander Macdonald, 7th Bt. of Sleat, 317 n. 4 McDouall, Andrew (1685–1760), Lord Bankton, An Institute of the Laws of Scotland in Civil Rights, 106 n. 1 McDougal, Andrew (unidentified), 47 Macdowal, Mrs. Christian, 317, 318 n. 7 MacDowall-Crichton, Margaret (Craufurd) (d. 1799), Countess of Dumfries, 239 n. 5, 332 n. 1 MacDowall-Crichton, Patrick (1726– 1803), 6th E. of Dumfries, 70 n. 2, 89 n. 1, 332 n. 1 Macfarlane (or Macfarlan), Lady Elizabeth ‘Betty’ (Erskine) (later Colville) (c. 1734–94), 85 and n. 2, 86 n. 2, 97, 98 n. 4, 118, 119 n. 4, 125, 135, 136 n. 8, 139; JB’s correspondence with, 86 n. 2; JB’s sexual attraction towards, 86 n. 2; JB always soothed by visits to, 86 n. 2 Macfarlane (or Macfarlan), Walter (?1705–67), of Arrochar, 20th Laird of Macfarlane, antiquary, 1st husband of preceding, 85 n. 2, 86 n. 2, 98 n. 4 McHarg, James, of Keirs, 114, 115–17 n. 8; cause of John Logan v. James McHarg and James McHarg, 114, 115–18 n. 8 McHarg, James, in Tairly, 114, 115–17 n. 8; cause of John Logan v. James McHarg and James McHarg, 114, 115–18 n. 8 McHarg, Mary (‘Mally’) (Laurie), wife of James McHarg of Keirs, 116 n. 8 McIntosh, Lt. Alexander, 83–84 n. 1 McKay, Archibald, The History of Kilmarnock, 168 n. 1 Mckenzie (or Mackenzie), Capt. (later Lt.Col.) Alexander (d. c. 1777), 206 n. 2; cause of William Milne v. Captain Alexander Mckenzie, 206 n. 2 Mackenzie, Sir Alexander (1700–66), of Gairloch, Bt., 156–57 n. 1 Mackenzie, Sir Alexander (c. 1730–70), of Gairloch, Bt., son of preceding, 156, 156–57 n. 1; cause of Sir Alexander

425

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 425

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Mackenzie of Gairloch v. Hector Mackenzie, younger, of Gairloch, and Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle, 6–7, 90 n. 2, 156, 156–57 n. 1, 158 n. 2, 162 Mackenzie, Lady Augusta (d. 1809), of Cromartie, youngest dau. of George Mackenzie, 3rd E. of Cromartie, 245, 246 n. 3; JB on, 245 Mckenzie (or Mackenzie), Colin (d. 1766), of Stracathro, 206 n. 2 Mackenzie, George (c. 1702–66), 3rd E. of Cromartie, 246 n. 3 Mackenzie, Hannah (Murdoch) (d. 1755), wife of Roderick, 90 n. 1 Mackenzie, Hector (1758–1826), son of Sir Alexander the younger, 157 n. 1, 158 n. 2; cause of Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Gairloch v. Hector Mackenzie, younger, of Gairloch, and Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle, 6–7, 90 n. 2, 156, 156–57 n. 1, 158 n. 2, 162 Mackenzie, Isabella (Gordon) (d. 1769), Countess of Cromartie, 246 n. 3 Mackenzie, Jean (Gorry) (d. 1767), 2nd wife of Sir Alexander the younger, 156 n. 1 Mackenzie, John, surgeon in Jamaica, 206 n. 2 Mackenzie, John (1748–88), of Dolphinton, 212 n. 4, 216 and n. 3 Mackenzie, Margaret (Mackenzie) (d. 1759), 1st wife of Sir Alexander the younger, 156–57 n. 1 Mackenzie, Lady Margaret, of Cromartie, dau. of George Mackenzie, 3rd E. of Cromartie, 246 n. 3 Mackenzie, Roderick (d. 1785), 7th of Redcastle, 90 nn. 1, 2, 156–57 n. 1, 158 n. 2; cause of Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Gairloch v. Hector Mackenzie, younger, of Gairloch, and Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle, 6–7, 90 n. 2, 156, 156–57 n. 1, 158 n. 2, 162 Mackie, Dr., attendant of Agnes Kerr at Ayr, 346 Mackie, John Ross (1707–97), of Palgowan, advocate, 331 and n. 3 Macklin, Charles (c. 1697–1797), actor and dramatist, 271 n. 4

Macky, John (d. 1726), A Journey Through Scotland, 210 n. 2 McLauchlan, Allan, bookbinder, Dumfries, 56 n. 39; possible reference to, 46 Maclaurin, John (1734–96), advocate, later Lord Dreghorn, 314 n. 1 Macleod, Bannatyne William (1744–1833), advocate, later Lord Bannatyne: in trial of John Reid, 58 n. 47 Macleod, John (1688–1773), of Muiravonside, advocate, 46, 59 n. 50 McLoughlin, T. O., James Boswell, An Account of Corsica, The Journal of a Tour to That Island, and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli, 12, 53 n. 22 McMeiken, Gilbert (d. 1778/9), of Grange (or Killantringan), 348, 348–49 n. 9 McMinn, David (c. 1719–99), merchant in Donaghadee, father of William, 356 n. 1 McMinn, Jane Charlotte (Boyd) (b. c. 1744), eldest dau. of Hugh Boyd, 351, 352 n. 6; JB’s correspondence with, 344 n. 9, 352 n. 6, 353 n. 7, 366, 367 n. 13 McMinn, William, merchant in Donaghadee, husband of preceding, 352 n. 6, 355, 356 n. 1 McMurtrie, John, customs officer, 193 n. 5 Maconochie (or McKonochie or Mackonochie), Alexander (?1736–?96), writer in Edinburgh, 272, 274–75 n. 7, 305, 307, 309, 312, 314, 317–19; JB’s correspondence with, 274–75 n. 7; on Douglas Cause, 274 n. 7 Macowan, Joseph, at Lisburn, 360 Macpherson, James (1736–96), Scottish poet, 288 n. 24; Fingal, 288 n. 24 Macpherson, Rev. Dr. John (1713–65), minister of Sleat, 283 n. 36 McQueen, Robert (1722–99), advocate, later Lord Braxfield, 92, 94 n. 3, 102 n. 3, 206–07 n. 2, 212 n. 4, 223, 224 and n. 1; career of, 94 n. 3; earnings as advocate, 281 n. 17 McQuhae, William (1737–1823), minister of St. Quivox, 47, 60–61 n. 61, 61 n. 65; JB’s ‘Journal of my jaunt, harvest 1762’ written for, 61 n. 61; JB on, 61 n. 61 Mactaggart, landlord at Ballantrae, 350 Magennis family, 360, 363 n. 20

426

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 426

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Maidment, James (1793–1879), Book of Scotish Pasquils, 63 n. 76 Main, John, in Auchingray, 46, 57–58 n. 47 Mair, John (?1702/3–69), Cocker’s Treatise of Arithmetic (revised and corrected by Mair), 106–07 n. 1 Maitland, William (?1693–1757), History of Edinburgh, 30 n. 215 Mallet (formerly Malloch), David (?1701/3– 65), author, 53 n. 25, 85 n. 2; Elvira, 85 n. 2 Malone, Edmond (1741–1812), critic and editor: JB’s correspondence with, 160 n. 3 Manchester, 1st E of. See Montagu, Henry, 1st E. of Manchester Mannheim, 98 n. 4 Mansfield, Lord. See Murray, William, B. Mansfield Manuelfowlis, barony of, 59 n. 50 March, 5th E. of. See Mortimer, Edmund, 5th E. of March Marinis, Hieronymus de, 57 n. 43 Marischal, 10th E. See Keith, George, 10th E. Marischal of Scotland Marsden, William (d. 1769), clerk to Sir John Fielding, 304 n. 2 Martin, David (1737–97), portrait painter and engraver, 216, 216–17 n. 3 Martin, Samuel (1714–88), M.P., 109 n. 6 Martinique, 358 n. 14 Mary (1542–87), Queen of Scots, 119 n. 6 Mary II (1662–94), Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, 322 n. 4 Mary (prostitute in Edinburgh), 251–52, 257, 260, 261 n. 1 Maso, Papyrius (fl. 71 b.c.), Roman general: and victory over Coricans, 53 n. 22 Massey, Miss, mistress of 6th E. of Kellie, 139 Mathew (unidentified), presumably servant to JB, 293, 296 Mathews, Catherine (Montgomery), wife of following, 354 n. 24 Mathews, George, of Springvale, 352, 354 n. 24 Matson, John, shipmaster, 351 n. 11 Mauchline, Ayrshire, 146 and n. 2 Maule, William (1700–82), 1st E. of Panmure (Irish peerage), M.P., 205 n. 2, 207 n. 2, 219–20 n. 2

Maupertuis, Pierre Louis Moreau de (1689– 1759), French philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, 288–89, 290–91 n. 2 Maxwell, Agnes (b. 1749), 2nd dau. of John, 181 n. 15 Maxwell, Agnes (Hannay), 1st wife of John, 181 n. 15 Maxwell, Alexander (d. 1701), of Terraughty, 181 n. 17 Maxwell, Catharine. See Fordyce, Catharine (Maxwell) Maxwell, Darcy (Brisbane) (d. 1810), Lady Maxwell, 125 n. 6; possible reference to, 124, 237 Maxwell, Eglantine (d. 1803), dau. of Sir William, 3rd Bt. of Monreith, 115 n. 7, 125 n. 5, 127 n. 1 Maxwell, Elizabeth (b. bef. 1749), eldest dau. of John, 181 n. 15 Maxwell, Frances (Colhoun) (d. 1818), Lady Maxwell, 125 n. 6; possible reference to, 124, 237 Maxwell, Sir James (1735–85), of Pollok, Bt., 125 n. 6; cause of Poor David Warnock v. Sir James Maxwell of Pollok, 139, 140 n. 8 Maxwell, Sir James, of Pollock, Baronet, James Ritchie and Company. See Sir James Maxwell of Pollock, Baronet, James Ritchie and Company Maxwell, Jane. See Gordon, Jane (Maxwell), Duchess of Gordon Maxwell, Jean (b. 1750), 3rd dau. of John, 181 n. 15 Maxwell, John (1720–1814), of Terraughty, 178, 180 n. 13, 181 n. 15, 187 Maxwell, Magdalen (or Magdalene) (Blair) (d. 1765), wife of Sir William, 3rd Bt. of Monreith, 115 n. 7, 125 n. 5 Maxwell, Margaret (Stewart) (c. 1745– 1816), Lady Maxwell, 125 n. 6; possible reference to, 124, 237 Maxwell, Robert, of Careen, Provost of Dumfries, 186 and n. 2 Maxwell, Sir Walter (1732–62), of Pollok, Bt., 125 n. 6 Maxwell, Capt. William (?1728–96), of Dalswinton, 185 n. 2

427

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 427

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Maxwell, Sir William (c. 1715–71), 3rd Bt. of Monreith, 115 n. 7, 125 n. 5 Maxwell, Sir William (d. 1812), of Monreith, Bt., son of preceding, 127 n. 1 Maxwell, Sir William (1739–1804), of Springkell, Bt., 125 n. 6, 134 n. 1 Maybole, Ayrshire, 283, 285 n. 2, 286 n. 4, 348 Mayo, Henry (1733–93), independent minister, 263, 266 n. 16, 299; suggests alterations to JB’s Account of Corsica, 266 n. 16, 299 Medows, Charles (1737–1816), later B. Pierrepont of Holme, V. Newark of Newark-on-Trent, and E. of Manvers, 320, 321 n. 1 Melfort, 4th E. of. See Drummond, James Louis, 4th E. of Melfort Melville, Sir James (1535/6–1617), of Halhill, 118, 119 n. 6; Memoirs of His Own Life, 119 n. 6 Melville Castle, Midlothian, 93 n. 2 Middlesex, 109–10 n. 6, 303 n. 1 Mignon, Nicholas, French glass-grinder, 21, 105 n. 1 Millar, Andrew (c. 1707–68), publisher in London, 16, 111, 112 n. 14 Millar, Thomas, weaver in Kilwinning, 122 n. 5; cause of Thomas Millar v. George Glasgow and Samuel Stewart, 122 n. 5 Miller, Margaret (Murdoch) (1733–67), 1st wife of following, 166 and n. 1 Miller, Thomas (1717–89), of Barskimming, Lord Justice-Clerk (later Sir Thomas, of Glenlee, Bt., and Lord President of the Court of Session), 29, 80 n. 14, 122, 122–23 n. 4, 166 and n. 1, 197 n. 3, 242, 332, 335 n. 16; JB dines with, 242; career of, 58 n. 47; in trial of John Reid, 58 n. 47; disapproves of new style of defending prisoners, 75–76 n. 3, 123 n. 4 Miller, William (1755–1846), later Lord Glenlee, 123 n. 4 Miller, Mr. (‘Cadie Miller’), tavern-keeper in Edinburgh, 249, 250 n. 9 Miln (or Mill), Thomas, schoolmaster, tenant in Clintmains, 81 n. 2; cause of Hugh Cairncross v. William Heatly and Others, 6, 80–81 n. 2, 138, 139 n. 4

Milne (or Mill), William (1733–71), of Bonnington (or Bonnytown or Bonnyton), 206 n. 2, 219; cause of William Milne v. Captain Alexander Mckenzie, 206 n. 2; cause of George Skene of Skene and William Milne of Bonnytown v. David Wallace, 218, 219–20 n. 2, 221–22 n. 5, 225 n. 1, 226 n. 4 Minorca, 132 n. 2, 246 n. 2, 320 n. 1 Mitchell, Alexander (fl. 1760–80), of Hallglenmuir, 144, 145 n. 2, 154 and n. 1, 178, 194, 199, 201, 233–34, 235 n. 4 Mitchell, Sir Andrew (1708–71), M.P., 159 and n. 1, 160; JB on, 159 n. 1 Mitchell, Hugh, in Craigman, 89 n. 1 Mitchell, Hugh (fl. 1760–76), of Dornal, 175 n. 14 Mitchell, Hugh, of Polosh, 154 n. 1, 160, 161 n. 6, 174 Mitchelson, Janet (Hay), wife of John, 120 n. 1 Michelson, Jean (Oliver), wife of Samuel, 120 n. 1 Mitchelson, John (d. 1728), of Middleton, advocate, 120 n. 1 Mitchelson, Samuel (1712–88), W.S., 120 and n. 1; JB on, 120 n. 1 Moffat, Dumfriesshire, 30, 77 n. 9, 132 n. 4, 136 n. 7 Molesworth, Robert (1656–92), 1st V., 51 n. 16; Account of Denmark, 51 n. 16 Monboddo, Lord. See Burnett, James, Lord Monboddo Monboddo (estate), 102 n. 4; JB and SJ at, 102 n. 4 Moncrieffe, David Stewart (1710–90), advocate, later Baron of Exchequer, 113, 114 n. 3, 212, 215, 235 Monsey, Messenger (c. 1694–1788), physician, 336, 338–39 n. 18 Montagu, Henry (c. 1563–1642), 1st E. of Manchester, Contemplatio Mortis et Immortalitatis, 162 and n. 3 Montagu, John (1718–92), 4th E. of Sandwich: speech in Douglas Cause in House of Lords, 329 n. 38 Montgomerie, Alexander (1744–1802), 3rd son of following, 201 n. 2; probable reference to, 200

428

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 428

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Montgomerie, Alexander (d. 1783), of Coilsfield, 200–01 n. 1 Montgomerie, Alexander (c. 1660–1729), 9th E. of Eglinton, 222 n. 8, 317 n. 4 Montgomerie, Alexander (1723–69), 10th E. of Eglinton, 108–09 n. 6, 221, 222 n. 6, 259 n. 12, 283, 286 n. 6; and Ayrshire politics, 223 n. 15; on Elizabeth Diana Bosville, 34, 221, 223 n. 12; on JB’s courtship of Catherine Blair, 34, 221; JB dines with, 331; and catch-singing, 98 n. 4; death of, 222 n. 6, 248 n. 3 Montgomerie, Hon. Archibald (1726–96), later 11th E. of Eglinton, 70 n. 2, 223 n. 15, 319 and n. 4 Montgomerie, David (d. bef. 3 Sept. 1752), of Lainshaw, father of MM, 82 n. 5, 156 n. 1 Montgomerie, James (d. 1766), of Lainshaw, bro. of MM, 82 n. 5, 172 nn. 4, 10 Montgomerie, Jean (Maxwell), widow of preceding, 172 n. 4, 173, 176; JB in love with, 172, 176 Montgomerie, John (d. 1786), mason in Stewarton, 173–74 n. 1; trial of James Barclay and others (‘the Stewarton rioters’), 4, 38, 172–73, 173–74 n. 1, 194 and n. 1 Montgomerie, Lilias (Montgomerie), wife of Alexander Montgomerie of Coilsfield, 201 n. 2 Montgomerie, Margaret. See Boswell, Margaret (Montgomerie) (MM) Montgomerie, Mary. See Campbell, Mary (Montgomerie) Montgomerie, Sir Robert (d. 1731), of Skelmorlie, Bt., 201 n. 2 Montgomerie, Susanna (Kennedy) (c. 1690– 1780), Countess of Eglinton, 222 n. 8; JB on, 222 n. 8 Montgomerie, Veronica (Boswell), sister of Lord Auchinleck, mother of MM, 82 n. 5, 156 n. 1 Montgomerie family of Lainshaw, 82–83 n. 5, 343 Montgomery of the Great Ards, 1st V. See Montgomery, Sir Hugh, 1st V. Montgomery of the Great Ards Montgomery of the Great Ards, 5th V. See Montgomery, Thomas, 5th E. of Mount Alexander

Montgomery, Anne, aunt of Capt. Alexander Montgomery-Cuninghame, 82 n. 5 Montgomery, Dorcas (d. 1824), dau. of William Montgomery of Rosemount, 352, 354 n. 22 Montgomery, Elizabeth (Hill) (d. 1789), 2nd wife of William Montgomery the elder, 354 n. 24 Montgomery, Sir Hugh (c. 1560–1636), 1st V. Montgomery of the Great Ards, 353 n. 17, 355 n. 3, 357 n. 7 Montgomery, James (1721–1803), of Stanhope, Lord Advocate (later Lord Chief Baron of Exchequer, Bt.), 193 n. 5, 229 n. 6; JB’s correspondence with, 193 n. 5; suspects JB involved in spiriting away of crucial witness, 193 n. 5; career of, 193 n. 5 Montgomery, Susanna (Jelly), wife of William Montgomery of Rosemount, 352, 354 n. 22 Montgomery, Thomas (d. 1757), 5th E. of Mount Alexander and 5th V. Montgomery of the Great Ards, 354, 355 n. 2 Montgomery, Sir Walter, of Kirktonholm, Bt., 82 n. 5 Montgomery, William (d. 1755), father of William Montgomery of Rosemount, 354 n. 24 Montgomery, Lt. (later Maj.) William (c. 1752–81), son of following, 352, 354 n. 19 Montgomery, William (1721–99), of Rosemount, M.P. (Irish Parliament), 352, 354 nn. 18, 20, 24 Montgomery-Cuninghame (or Montgomerie-Cuninghame), Capt. Alexander (d. 1770), of Kirktonholm, husband of following, 80, 82–83 n. 5, 88, 152 n. 1, 154, 172, 344, 345 and n. 3, 346–47, 349; JB’s correspondence with, 173 n. 1 Montgomery-Cuninghame (or Montgomerie-Cuninghame), Elisabeth (or Elizabeth) (Montgomerie) (d. 1776), of Lainshaw, 82 n. 5, 173, 176–77, 237, 240, 344, 345 and n. 5, 346 Monthly Review, The, 18, 316 n. 1 Montpellier, 218 n. 1

429

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 429

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Moore, George (later Sir George, Kt.) (1709–87), merchant in Peel, 151–52 n. 1 Moore, John (c. 1730–1805), Archbishop of Canterbury, 235 n. 4 Moore, John (d. 1769), Ordinary of Newgate, 262, 265 n. 11 Moray, 7th E. of. See Stewart, Francis, 7th E. of Moray Moredun, Midlothian, 114 n. 3 Morgagni, Giovanni Battista (1682–1771), Italian anatomist, 289, 291 n. 5; De Sedibus et Causis Morborum per Anatomen Indagatis, 291 n. 5 Morley, A., publisher in London, 52 n. 20 Morpeth, Northumberland, 253 and n. 1 Mortimer, Edmund (1391–1424/5), 5th E. of March, 315 n. 2 Mortimer family, 315 and n. 2 Morton, 14th E. of. See Douglas, James, 14th E. of Morton Moscow, 184 n. 2, 297 n. 5 Mosshead, Dumfriesshire, 62 n. 70 Môtiers, 111 n. 9; JB at, 11 Mounsey, Dr. James (1709/10–1773), physician and naturalist, 184, 184–85 n. 2 Mount Alexander, Dowager Countess of. See De la Cherois (or Delacherois), Marie Angélique Madeleine, Dowager Countess of Mount Alexander Mount Alexander, 5th E. of. See Montgomery, Thomas, 5th E. of Mount Alexander Mount Alexander, County Down: Mount Alexander Castle, 355 n. 2; manor of, 357 n. 5 Mounteney, Richard (d. 1768), 2nd Baron of Court of Exchequer in Ireland, 355 n. 2 Mountstuart, Lord. See Stuart, John, Lord Mountstuart Mourne Mountains, County Down, 363, 364 n. 5; described, 364 n. 5 Mudford, Anthony, father of following, 263 n. 1 Mudford, Anthony (1745–99), servant to JB, 262, 263 n. 1, 277 Mudford, Mary Ann (Russell), wife of preceding, 263 n. 1 Mudie, John (d. 1728), 4th of Arbikie (or Arbekie), 242 n. 5

Mudie, Magdalen (Carnegie or Carnegy) (c. 1682–1771), wife of preceding, 242 n. 5 Muiravonside, Stirlingshire, 57 n. 47 Muirhead, George (c. 1715–73), Professor of Humanity at Glasgow University, 14, 52 n. 21 Munro, Hector (later Sir Hector, Kt.) (1726–1805), of Novar, M.P., 212 n. 7; cause of Sir Alexander Grant of Dalvey v. Lt.-Col. Hector Munro, 212 n. 7 Munster: Quakerism in, 361 n. 9 Murdoch, Elizabeth (Cochrane), wife of Thomas, 89 n. 1 Murdoch, John (1709–76), of Rosebank, tobacco merchant, 166 n. 1 Murdoch, Margaret (Lang), wife of precceding, 166 n. 1 Murdoch, Thomas, of Cumloden, 89 n. 1 Mure, Katherine (Graham) (1734–1820), wife of following, 138 n. 13 Mure, William (1718–76), of Caldwell, Baron of Exchequer in Scotland, 138 n. 13 Murphy, Arthur (1727–1805), dramatist and actor, 213 n. 4; The Citizen, 212, 213 n. 4 Murray, Alexander (1736–95), advocate, later Lord Henderland, 224 and n. 3, 225 n. 2 Murray, Amelia (Murray) (c. 1710–66), wife of Lord George Murray, 358 n. 14 Murray, Lady Anne (Bruce) (d. bef. 1714), wife of following, 88–89 n. 2, 232 n. 2 Murray, Sir David (d. 1729), of Stanhope, Bt., 88 n. 2, 232 n. 2 Murray, David (1727–96), 7th V. Stormont, later 2nd E. of Mansfield, 228 n. 2; cause of Rev. Mr. Richard Brown, Minister of Lochmaben v. Heritors, or Kindly Tenants, of Lochmaben, 227–28 n. 2, 236 n. 5 Murray, Lord George (1694–1760), father of following, 358 n. 14, 359 n. 15 Murray, Capt. (later Lt.-Gen.) James (1734–94), 356, 358–59 n. 14 Murray, John, ‘Some Civil Cases of James Boswell, 1772–74’, 157 n. 1 Murray, John (1659/60–1724), 1st D. of Atholl, 128 n. 1, 235 n. 6

430

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 430

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Murray, John (1729–74), 3rd D. of Atholl, 356, 359 n. 15 Murray, Gen. Lord John (1711–87), 235, 235–36 n. 6 Murray, Margaret (d. 1785), sister of Lord Mansfield, 237 n. 2; possible reference to, 237 Murray, Lady Mary (Ross), Duchess of Atholl, 128 n. 1, 235 n. 6 Murray, Nicolas Helen (d. 1777), directress of Edinburgh dancing assemblies, sister of Lord Mansfield, 237 n. 2; possible reference to, 237 Murray, Patrick (1703–78), 5th Lord Elibank, advocate, 309, 309–10 n. 7 Murray, William (1705–93), B. Mansfield of Mansfield, later 1st Earl of Mansfield, 7, 209 n. 3, 237 n. 2, 325 n. 1, 326 n. 2, 331– 32, 334 n. 12; conversation with JB about Douglas Cause, 27–28, 39, 323–25; on JB’s father, 323; on JB’s desire to become Laird of Auchinleck, 332; on JB’s Prologue for opening of Theatre Royal, 325; on JB’s cause of John Smith v. Archibald Steel, 332; career of, 326 n. 2; on Corsica, 330–31 n. 53; speech in Douglas Cause in House of Lords, 329 n. 38, 330 n. 45; on Lord Lyttelton, 325; on Thomas Miller of Barskimming, 332; on whether parliamentary privilege applicable in Scotland, 332; on Scottish counsel moving to English Bar, 332; and John Wilkes, 109 n. 6 Murray, Sir William (1746–1800), of Ochtertyre, Bt., 246 n. 3 Mylrea, Mrs., 152 n. 1 Myrtle (or Mirtle or Mertle), William (1739–69), mariner, 81 n. 2; cause of Hugh Cairncross v. William Heatly and Others, 6, 80–81 n. 2, 138, 139 n. 4 Nairn, Katharine: trial of, 208 n. 4 Nairne, William (d. 1811), advocate, later Lord Dunsinnan, 105, 107 n. 1, 110 n. 7, 185–86, 188, 191 n. 1, 194 n. 1, 196; JB on, 110 n. 7; career of, 110 n. 7; and SJ, 110 n. 7 Naples, 109 n. 6; JB in, 263, 267 n. 25 Napoleon I (1769–1821), Emperor of the French, 104 n. 1

Nash, Richard ‘Beau’ (1674–1762), master of ceremonies at Bath, 315 n. 5 National Portrait Gallery of Scotland, 255 n. 7 Neale, James, Fordyce, and Down, banking firm, 125 n. 5, 218 n. 1 Negus, Col. Francis (1670–1732), 287 n. 16 Neil, Gabriel (d. 1862), Edinburgh bibliophile, 55 n. 35 Neill, Adam (d. 1812), Edinburgh printer and bookseller, 17, 244, 245 n. 2; JB’s correspondence with, 245 n. 2 Neill, James, merchant in Ayr, 190 n. 2, 196, 196–97 n. 1; possible reference to, 234 Neill, James (d. 1799), writer in Ayr, son of preceding, 190 n. 2; possible reference to, 190; probable reference to, 194, 234 Neilson, Catherine (Maxwell) (d. 1758), wife of following, 181 n. 17 Neilson, Robert, of Barncalzie, 181 n. 17 Nelson, Richard, innkeeper at Barnby Moor, 258–59 n. 8 Nether Glencraig, Ayrshire, 116 n. 8 Neuchâtel, 11, 179 n. 2 Neuhoff, Theodore von (1694–1756), 15, 46, 54 n. 29 New Cumnock, Ayrshire, 178, 180 n. 6, 188 and n. 3 New Hailes (or Newhailes), 90 n. 4 Newall, Adam Craufurd (or Adam Newall Craufurd) (d. 1790), of Polquhairn, 156 and n. 2, 198 Newbattle Abbey, Midlothian, 210 and n. 2; description of mansion, 210 n. 2 Newcastle, D. of. See Pelham-Holles, Thomas, D. of Newcastle Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 253 n. 3; Biggmarket, 255 n. 10; Bull and Post Boy inn, 253 and n. 3; Oat Market, 255 n. 10; Royal Grammar School, 281 n. 13; Silver Street, 254 n. 5; White Cross, 255 n. 10; Worshipful Company of Barber Surgeons in Newcastle, 255 n. 10 Newcomen, Thomas (c. 1664–1729), inventor, 295 n. 14 Newry, 361 n. 8, 363, 364 n. 3; described, 364 n. 3 Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727), mathematician and physicist, 315 n. 4

431

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 431

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Newtown (Newtownards), County Down, 355, 356 n. 2, 357 n. 6; JB on curious epitaph in church of, 360; chapel in Movilla cemetery, 355, 357 n. 7; dissenters in, 355 Nightingale, ship, 351 n. 11 Nijmegen, 104 n. 1 Nisbet, Janet (Dundas), wife of following, 130 n. 3 Nisbet (later Hamilton), John (1751–1804), son of William Nisbet of Dirleton, 130 n. 3 Nisbet, Mary (b. 1750), dau. of William Nisbet of Dirleton, 129, 130 n. 2; JB on, 129 Nisbet, Mary (Hamilton) (1727–97), wife of following, 130 nn. 2, 3 Nisbet, William (1721–83), of Dirleton, 130 nn. 2, 3 Nisbet, William (1747–1822), son of preceding, 130 n. 3 North Briton, The, 88 n. 9, 108–09 n. 6 Northampton, 299, 301 n. 7, 302 and n. 3 Northumberland: and general election of 1768, 252 and n. 3 Northumberland, Countess of. See Percy, Lady Elizabeth (Seymour), Countess of Northumberland Northumberland, 2nd E. and 1st D. of. See Percy, Hugh, 2nd E. and 1st D. of Northumberland Norton, Sir Fletcher (1716–89), of Grantley, later B. Grantley, 348 and n. 8 Nova Scotia, 168 n. 1 Ogilvie, Anne (Wilson) (d. 1800), wife of following, 254 n. 5 Ogilvie, Rev. George (d. 1765), minister in Silver Street, 254 n. 5 Ogilvie (or Ogilvy), Lt. Patrick (d. 1765): trial of, 208 n. 4 Ogilvie (or Ogilvy), Walter (1733–1819), of Clova, titular 5th E. of Airlie, advocate, 220 n. 2; cause of Walter Ogilvie of Clova and William Douglas of Bridgetown v. James Coutts of Hallgreen, 219–20 n. 2, 221–22 n. 5, 225 n. 1, 226 n. 4 Ogilvy, James (d. 1770), 6th E. of Findlater and 3rd E. of Seafield, 128 and n. 1, 235–36 n. 6

Ogilvy, Mary (Murray) (1720–95), Countess of Findlater, 128 and n. 1, 235–36 n. 6 Oglethorpe, Gen. James Edward (1696– 1785), 307 and n. 1, 308 and n. 5, 309, 318; JB on, 307 n. 1; career of, 307 n. 1; on use of cork jackets by soldiers, 312, 312–13 n. 3; and alleged Jacobite sympathies, 307 n. 1; on mob being composed of old families sunk, 315; British Essays in Favour of the Brave Corsicans (contributions to), 308 n. 5 Old Deer, Aberdeenshire, 95 n. 2 Oliver, Mr., tavern-keeper in Stewarton, 345 Ord, Alice (1745–1826), dau. of Robert, 212 n. 4, 216 n. 3 Ord, Elizabeth (c. 1742–1820), dau. of Robert, 212 n. 4 Ord, Isabella, dau. of Robert, 212 n. 4 Ord, Margaret (d. 1806), dau. of Robert, 212 n. 4 Ord, Mary (Darnell) (d. 1749), wife of following, 212 n. 4 Ord, Robert (1700–78), Lord Chief Baron of Court of Exchequer in Scotland, 124 and n. 1, 212 and n. 4, 215–16; career of, 124 n. 1 Orme, Alexander (d. 1789), W.S., 227 and n. 1, 227–28 n. 2, 236 Orr, Rev. Alexander (1686–1767), minister of Hoddam, Annandale, 186–87 n. 3 Orr, Alexander (1725–74), of Waterside, W.S., son of preceding, 47, 61 n. 70, 186–87 n. 3 Orr, Thomas, innkeeper at Newtown, 355 Osborn (or Osburn), John, 101 n. 1, 101–02 n. 3; cause of John and Samuel Osborn (or Osburn) v. Earl of Dumfries, 101, 101–02 n. 3 Osborn (or Osburn), Samuel, 101 n. 1, 101–02 n. 3; cause of John and Samuel Osborn (or Osburn) v. Earl of Dumfries, 101, 101–02 n. 3 Otway, Thomas (1652–85), dramatist, 230 n. 3; The Orphan, 134 n. 1; Venice Preserv’d, 134 n. 1, 230 and nn. 3, 5, 6 Overton. See Fullarton, William, of Overton Overton (estate), Ayrshire, 155 n. 1

432

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 432

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (43 b.c.–c. a.d. 17), Roman poet, Metamorphoses, 156, 158 n. 5 Owen, Humphrey (d. 1768), librarian at Bodleian Library, 292 n. 11 Oxford: Angel Inn, 277, 281 n. 12, 284, 287 n. 9; Cornmarket Street, 287 n. 9; journey to by flying coach from London, 277, 280 n. 4; Golden Cross inn, 283–84, 287 n. 9; New College Lane, 286 n. 4; Radcliffe Infirmary, 285 n. 2; St. Mary’s Church, 283, 286 n. 7 Oxford, 3rd E. of. See Harley, Edward, 3rd E. of Oxford Oxford, 4th E. of. See Harley, Edward, 4th E. of Oxford Oxford Journal, 248 n. 3 Oxford, University of, 281 n. 13, 285 n. 2; Balliol College, 285 n. 2, 287 n. 15; Bodleian Library, 288–89, 292 nn. 11, 14; Christ Church College, 218 n. 1, 283, 285–86 n. 3, 286 nn. 5, 6, 306 n. 3, 326 n. 2; Divinity School, 292 n. 11; Duke Humphrey library, 292 n. 11; Jesus College, 289, 292 nn. 11, 13; Lincoln College, 153 n. 1, 281 n. 13; Magdalen College, 277, 281 nn. 11, 12; New College, 286 n. 8, 287 n. 9; New Inn Hall, 276–78, 280 n. 1, 281 n. 13; Radcliffe Camera, 292 n. 14; St. John’s College, 280 n. 7; St. Mary Hall, 286 n. 4, 291 n. 9, 338 n. 7; Savilian Professors of Geometry, 286 n. 4; Schools Quadrangle, 292 n. 11; Sermon before the University of Oxford, 283; Trinity College, 286 n. 8, 289, 291 n. 10, 338 n. 8 Panmure, 1st E. of. See Maule, William, 1st E. of Panmure Paoli, Giacinthio (or Giacinto) (1681–1763), father of following, 54 n. 29 Paoli, Pasquale (1725–1807), Corsican general, 11–12, 18–19, 32, 46, 53 nn. 24–25, 77, 79 nn. 9, 12, 143, 152–53 n. 1, 226, 257, 272, 275–76 n. 10, 276 n. 12, 280 n. 2, 283, 298 n. 9, 300 nn. 2, 3, 305 n. 5, 305–06 n. 1, 316 n. 1; JB’s Account of Corsica dedicated to, 246 n. 1; JB’s correspondence with, 231 and n. 1, 309 and

n. 1, 346, 347 n. 6, 348; sends JB presents of gun, pistols and dog, 263, 268 n. 28; attacks Capraia, 152–53 n. 1, 153 n. 3; manifesto of, 152 n. 1; visits Scotland, 52 n. 21, 91 n. 4, 229 n. 6 Paris, 20, 109 n. 6, 129 n. 2, 189–90 n. 3, 218 n. 1, 316 n. 3, 328 n. 32; Hotel de Chalons, Rue St. Martin, 163 n. 1 Paris, François, tutor, 136, 138 n. 13 Parr, Caesar (1730–92), merchant in Peel, 151, 151–52 n. 1; cause of John Brown v. Caesar Parr, 6, 63 n. 76, 151, 151–52 n. 1, 345 Parton, Kirkcudbrightshire, 178, 181 n. 17 Paterson, John (?1705–89), M.P., 263, 267 n. 23 Paterson, William (1718–72), of Braehead, writer in Kilmarnock, 152 n. 2, 168–69 n. 2; possible reference to, 151; cause of Earl of Glencairn and William Paterson v. The Magistrates and Town Council of Kilmarnock, 168–69 n. 2 Paterson, William (1749–1802), son of preceding, 152 n. 2 Paterson, Misses, of Comber, 359 Paxton, John, merchant in Ecclefechan, 47, 61–62 n. 70; cause of William Johnston v. John Paxton, 47, 61–62 n. 70; JB refers to cause as very tedious, 62 n. 70 Paxton House, Berwickshire, 311 n. 4 Payne, Benjamin (d. 1768), highwayman, 262, 264–65 n. 6, 265 n. 10 Pazzaglia, Salvatore (1723–1807), flute teacher in Siena, 363 n. 16 Peel, Isle of Man, 151–52 n. 1 Peggy, ship, 351 n. 11 Pelham, Henry (1695–1754), Prime Minister, 330 n. 45 Pelham-Holles, Thomas (1693–1768), D. of Newcastle, 69 n. 2, 120 n. 1, 330 n. 45; speech in Douglas Cause in House of Lords, 329 n. 38 Pembroke, 10th E. of. See Herbert, Henry, 10th E. of Pembroke Pencaitland, Haddingtonshire, 130 n. 3 Pennant, Thomas (1726–98), A Tour in Scotland, 180–81 n. 14, 181–82 n. 1, 182 nn. 2, 6, 183 n. 9

433

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 433

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Percy, Lady Elizabeth (Seymour) (1716–76), Countess (and later Duchess) of Northumberland, 253 n. 9 Percy, Hugh (Smithson) (c. 1714–86), 2nd E. and 1st D. of Northumberland, 252 n. 3, 336, 337 n. 5, 339 n. 20 Percy, Rev. Thomas (1729–1811), vicar of Easton Maudit, later Bishop of Dromore, 336–37, 337–38 n. 5; Journal, 337 n. 1; Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 337 n. 5 Perkins, Mrs., purveyor of condoms in London, 261–62 n. 10 Persia, 292 n. 16 Perth, 13th E. of. See Drummond, James, 13th E. of Perth Perth Burghs: general election of 1768, 334–35 n. 12 Peter I (1672–1725), Tsar of Russia, 292 n. 17 Peter III (1728–62), Tsar of Russia, 184–85 n. 2 Peterhead, 125 n. 5 Petty, John (d. 1761), 1st E. of Shelburne, 291 n. 9 Petty, Mary (Fitzmaurice) (d. 1780), Dowager Countess of Shelburne and Baroness Wycombe, 291 n. 9 Petty, William (1737–1805), 2nd E. of Shelburne, later M. of Lansdowne, 291 n. 9 Philips, Ambrose (1674–1749), poet, Pastorals, Epistles, Odes, and other Original Poems, 260 n. 2 Phillips, Mrs., purveyor of condoms in London, 261 n. 10 Phillipson, Nicholas Tindal, ‘Scottish Public Opinion and the Union in the Age of Association’, 306 n. 4 Pinarius, Marcus (fl. 180 b.c.), Roman praetor: and Corsica, 52–53 n. 22 Pitcairn, George (d. 1791), merchant in Edinburgh, 59 n. 55; possible reference to, 46 Pitcairne, Archibald (1652–1713), physician in Edinburgh and poet, 136–37 n. 2 Pitfour, Lord. See Ferguson, James, Lord Pitfour Pitt, William (1708–78), the Elder, 1st E. of Chatham, 101, 103 n. 5, 297 n. 2; JB’s correspondence with, 9, 101, 103 n. 5

Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) (c. 254–184 b.c.), Roman writer of comedies, 56 n. 40 Pliny, the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus) (a.d. 23/4–79), Roman naturalist, 15; Naturalis Historiae, 53 n. 22 Pliny, the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus) (a.d. 61/2–c. 112), Roman author, orator and statesman, 72 n. 4; Epistulae, 71, 72 nn. 4, 6 Plutarch (c. a.d. 46–c. 120), Greek biographer and author, 306 n. 1 Polloktoun (or Pollok Town), Renfrewshire, 140 n. 8 Pomfret cakes. See Pontefract Pontefract: and liquorice, 50 n. 14; pomfret cakes, 45, 50 n. 14 Pope, Alexander (1688–1744), 56 n. 41; Adaptations of the Emperor Hadrian, 56–57 n. 41; Imitations of Horace, 307 n. 1 Porter, Mr., incumbent of chapel in Carrubber’s Close, Edinburgh, 238 n. 2 Porterfield, Boyd (d. 1794), of Porterfield, 134 n. 1 Porterfield, Christian (Cunyngham), wife of preceding, 134 n. 1 Portland, 1st E. of. See Bentinck, William (or Hans Willem), 1st E. of Portland Portpatrick, Wigtownshire, 344, 345 n. 4, 350; JB’s description of, 350 Portugal, 144 n. 6, 180 n. 4 Potsdam, 180 n. 3 Pott, Percivall (1714–88), surgeon, 319 and n. 1 Potter, Thomas (?1718–59), An Essay on Woman, 109 n. 6 Pottle, Frederick A., 50 n. 13, 309 n. 4; Boswell on the Grand Tour: Italy, Corsica, and France, 1765–1766, 11; Boswell in Holland, 1763–1764, 170 n. 7, 173 n. 1; Boswell in Search of a Wife, 1766–1769, 36, 125 n. 4, 140 n. 14; James Boswell: The Earlier Years, 1740–1769, 4, 15, 18–19, 22, 24, 27, 30 n. 215, 35, 36 n. 259, 38, 52 n. 20, 65 n. 87, 129 n. 1, 159 n. 8, 168 n. 3, 171–72 n. 7, 183 n. 10, 189–90 n. 3, 249–50 n. 6, 269 n. 28, 273 n. 1, 349 n. 15; The Literary Career of

434

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 434

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index James Boswell, Esq., 14, 27, 51 n. 20, 270 n. 1; Private Papers of James Boswell from Malahide Castle, 72 n. 8, 178 n. 3, 303 n. 5, 305 nn. 7, 9, 312 n. 13, 313 nn. 4, 8, 315 n. 5, 316 n. 3 Pratt, Sir Charles (1714–94), B. Camden, later 1st E. Camden, 109 n. 6, 329 n. 38; speech in Douglas Cause in House of Lords, 329 n. 38 Prentice, John, landlord of Star and Garter tavern, London, 260, 261 n. 5 Presbyterianism: strict Sabbatarianism, 224, 224–25 n. 6 Presmennan, Haddingtonshire, 130 n. 3 Preston, Anne (Cochrane) (d. 1779), Lady, wife of following, 136, 137 n. 3, 210 n. 3 Preston, Sir George (d. 1779), of Valleyfield, Bt., 137 n. 3, 210 and n. 3; and kindness shown to JB and MM, 210 n. 3 Prestongrange, Lord. See Grant, William, Lord Prestongrange Prestwick, 114 n. 2, 190, 191 n. 5, 194, 194–95 n. 3, 196–97 n. 1 Prestwick, magistrates of, 194, 194–95 n. 3, 235 nn. 2, 4; cause of John Guthrie and Others v. James Blair and Others, 235 n. 2; cause of John Guthrie and Others v. Magistrates of Prestwick, 194–95 n. 3, 237 n. 1 Price, John, librarian of Bodleian Library, 292 n. 11 Primrose, Archibald (1664–1723), 1st E. of Rosebery, 79 n. 14 Primrose, Dorothea (Cressy) (1673–1720), Countess of Rosebery, 79 n. 14 Pringle, Andrew (d. 1776), Lord Alemoor, 105, 110 n. 8; JB on, 110 n. 8; career of, 110 n. 8; in Douglas Cause, 25 n. 191, 27, 324, 327 n. 19 Pringle, James (d. 1776), of Bowland, W.S., 125 and n. 2 Pringle, James, of Torwoodlee, father of preceding, 125 n. 2 Pringle, Sir John (1707–82), Bt., military physician, 125 n. 1, 269, 270–71 n. 3, 271 n. 5, 309, 314 and n. 1, 320, 321 n. 2; JB’s correspondence with, 9, 124 n. 7, 314 n. 1, 331 n. 4; JB on, 271 n. 3; on JB’s quarrel with Lord Mountstuart, 331

n. 4; career of, 270–71 n. 3; on Belle de Zuylen, 31, 250 n. 1, 270 Writings. ‘Account of persons seized with the gaol fever while working in Newgate’, 270–71 n. 3; ‘Experiments upon septic and antiseptic substances’, 270–71 n. 3; Life of General James Wolfe, 270–71 n. 3; Observations on the Diseases of the Army, 270 n. 3; Observations on the Nature and Cure of Hospital and Jayl Fevers, 270 n. 3 Pringle, Katherine (Pringle) (d. 1745), wife of following, 125 n. 2 Pringle, Sir Robert (c. 1690–1779), of Stichill, 3rd Bt., 125 and nn. 1, 2, 133 n. 1 Pringle, Walter (d. 1769), advocate, bro. of preceding, 133 and n. 1 Public Advertiser, The, 200 n. 1, 265 nn. 8, 10, 11, 330 n. 49, 366 n. 2 Pulteney, William (1684–1764), 1st E. of Bath, 338 n. 7 Pulteney, William (1729–1805), M.P., 335 n. 12 Quakers, 123–24 n. 5, 301 n. 10; in Ireland, 360, 361 n. 9 Quebec, 168 n. 1 Queensberry, 1st D. of. See Douglas, William, 1st D. of Queensberry Queensberry, 3rd D. of. See Douglas, Charles, 3rd D. of Queensberry Rae, David (1724–1804), advocate, later Lord Eskgrove, 224 and n. 2; career of, 224 n. 2; reputation as judge, 224 n. 2 Rammerscales, Dumfriesshire, 185 n. 2 Ramsay, Allan (1684–1758), poet, 238 n. 2 Ramsay, Allan (1713–84), painter, son of preceding, 216 n. 3, 318 n. 8 Ramsay, George (d. 1787), 8th E. of Dalhousie, advocate, 211 and n. 4 Ramsay, John (1736–1814), of Ochtertyre, Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century, 75 n. 2, 75–76 n. 3 Ramsay, Peter (d. 1794), innkeeper in Edinburgh, 228, 229 n. 6 Rankin, Andrew, at parish of Auchinleck, 202 n. 4

435

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 435

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Rannie, David (1712–64), merchant and shipbuilder, 93 n. 2 Raphael (Raffaello Santi) (1483–1520), Italian painter and architect, 45, 49–50 n. 9 Ratho, Midlothian, 128 n. 4; cause of Earl of Morton v. Heretors of Ratho, 128 n. 4 Raybould, John (d. 1768), forger, 224 and n. 5; trial of, 10, 224 and n. 5, 225, 225–26 n. 2; JB visits in Tolbooth prison under sentence of death, 7–8, 247–48; executed, 249 and nn. 1, 3 Redcastle, Ross-shire, 90 n. 2 Regiam Majestatem, 309, 310 nn. 11, 12 Regiments of the British Army: Coldstream Guards, 273 n. 1; 1st (or Royal) Dragoons, 246 n. 2, 319 n. 1; 2nd (or Royal North British) Dragoons (‘the Scots Greys’), 185 n. 2, 319 n. 4; 7th Dragoons, 184 n. 3; 11th Dragoons, 210 n. 2; 21st Regt. of Dragoons, 188 n. 1; 1st Regt. of Foot Guards, 210 n. 2, 307 n. 1; 3rd Regt. of Foot Guards, 119 n. 2, 306 n. 5, 338 n. 7, 359 n. 14; 1st (or Royal) Regt. of Foot, 2nd Battalion, 104 n. 1; 5th Regt. of Foot, 99 n. 1; 6th Regt. of Foot, 99 n. 1; 11th Regt. of Foot, 210 n. 2; 16th Regt. of Foot, 211 n. 2; 21st Regt. of Foot (or Royal North British Fusiliers), 185–86 n. 5, 254 n. 4; 24th Regt. of Foot, 84 n. 2, 132 n. 2, 210 n. 2; 25th (Edinburgh) Regt. of Foot, 71 n. 1, 98 n. 6, 163 n. 2, 287 n. 16; 27th Regt. of Foot, 246 n. 2; 30th Regt. of Foot, 254 n. 4; 31st Regt. of Foot, America, 206 n. 2; 33rd Regt. of Foot, 120 n. 1, 132 n. 2; 40th Regt. of Foot, 354 n. 19; 42nd (The Royal Highland) Regt. of Foot (the ‘Black Watch’), 83 n. 1, 212 n. 7, 235–36 n. 6, 358 n. 14; 43rd Regt. of Foot, 82–83 n. 5; 44th Regt. of Foot, 99 n. 1, 100 n. 1, 140 n. 10; 51st Regt. of Foot, 319 n. 4, 365; 62nd Regt. of Foot, 83 n. 5; 65th Regt. of Foot, 169 n. 4; 71st Regt. of Foot, 84–85 n. 2; 77th Regt. of Foot (Atholl Highlanders), 359 n. 14; 93rd Regt. of Foot, 347 n. 2; 94th Regt. of Foot, 71 n. 1; 98th Regt. of Foot, 129 n. 2; 108th Regt. of Foot, 185–86 n. 5; 111th Regt. of Foot, 83 n. 5; Royal

American Regt., 103 n. 1; 2nd Troop of Horse Guards, 314 n. 1; Wynard’s Regt. of Marines, 309–10 n. 7 Reid, Rev. George (1696–1786), minister of Ochiltree, 150, 151 n. 1, 176, 177 n. 1; JB on, 150 Reid, Jean (or Jane) (Campbell) (d. 1770), wife of preceding, 151 n. 1, 176 and n. 2 Reid, John (?1725–74), flesher in Muiravonside, 4, 38, 229 n. 6; trial in 1753, 46, 59 n. 49; trials in 1766 and 1774, 57–58 n. 47, 59 n. 49, 75–76 n. 3, 123 n. 4; Last Speech, Confession, and Dying Words, 58 n. 47, 151 n. 2 Reid, Thomas (1710–96), Inquiry into the Human Mind on the principles of Common Sense, 74 n. 12, 217 n. 4 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 355 n. 2 Revolution of 1688, 166 n. 5, 322 and n. 4, 358 n. 8, 361 n. 8 Reyburn, Robert, bonnet-maker in Goosehill, 173–74 n. 1; trial of James Barclay and others (‘the Stewarton rioters’), 4, 38, 172–73, 173–74 n. 1, 194 and n. 1 Rham, Johann Christoph Wilhelm von (1733–1812), friend of JB, 88 n. 7 Riall, Elizabeth (Miles), wife of following, 291 n. 9 Riall, Samuel (1741–1822), priest, later rector of Killenaule, 289, 291 n. 9 Richardson, Samuel (1689–1761), author and printer, 279 Richardson, William, printer, 312 n. 1; possible reference to, 312 Ritchie, Alexander, lay teacher, 151 n. 2; JB on, 151 n. 2 Rivers, 4th E. See Savage, Richard, 4th E. Rivers Robert III (1337–1406), King of Scotland, 346 n. 5 Roberton, Archibald (d. 1798), of Bedlay, advocate, 141, 141–42 n. 6 Robertson, Dr. William (1721–93), historian and Church of Scotland minister, 285, 288 n. 22, 320, 321 n. 8, 336; career of, 288 n. 22; meets SJ, 288 n. 23 Writings. History of America, 288 n. 22; History of the Reign of Charles V, 288 n. 12, 320, 321 and n. 8; History of Scotland

436

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 436

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index during the Reigns of Queen Mary and James VI, 285, 288 n. 22 Robertson, Rev. Dr. William (1705–83), schoolmaster and theological writer, 299, 301 n. 9; appointed master of Wolverhampton Grammar School, 301 n. 9; An Attempt to Explain the Words Reason, Substance, Person (etc.), 299, 301 n. 9 Robertson, Mr., contractor for paving the streets of London, 251, 255–56, 260; JB on, 260 Rockingham, 1st M. of. See Watson-Wentworth, Thomas, 1st M. of Rockingham Rockingham, 2nd M. of. See Watson-Wentworth, Charles, 2nd M. of Rockingham Roe, Stephen (d. 1764), Ordinary of Newgate, 262, 265 n. 12; JB on, 262 Roman law: The Twelve Tables, 106–07 n. 1 Roome, Edward (d. 1729), author, 241 n. 7 Rose, Hugh, 15th of Kilravock, 87 n. 7 Rose, Hugh (1705–72), 17th of Kilravock, 87 n. 7 Rose, James (c. 1737–1800), 2nd son of following, 85, 87–88 n. 7, 144 n. 5 Rose, James (1699–1762), of Brea, 87 n. 7 Rose, James, of Broadley, 87 n. 7 Rose, Margaret (Rose), dau. of preceding and wife of James Rose of Brae, 87 n. 7 Rose, Dr. William (1719–86), schoolmaster, editor and translator, 307, 308 n. 1, 320; JB on, 308 n. 1 Rosebery, Countess of. See Primrose, Dorothea (Cressy), Countess of Rosebery Rosebery, 1st E. of. See Primrose, Archibald, 1st E. of Rosebery Rosemount, Ayrshire, 239 n. 5 Rosemount, County Down, 352, 354 n. 20 Ross, Alexander (d. 1753), W.S., father of David, 330 n. 50 Ross, Lt.-Col. Charles, 316, 317 n. 5 Ross, David (1728–90), actor and theatre manager, 213, 213–14 n. 5, 230, 236, 325, 330 n. 50; JB’s friendship with, 213–14 n. 5; obituary in Gentleman’s Magazine (probably by JB), 213 n. 5 Ross, Frances (Fanny) (Murray) (1729– 78), wife of preceding, 214 n. 6; JB on, 214 n. 6

Ross, Ian Simpson, Lord Kames and the Scotland of his Day, 24 Ross, Robert, 83, 83–84 n. 1; cause of Poor Robert Ross v. Magistrates of Inverness, 83, 83–84 n. 1 Ross, Walter, W.S., nephew of David, 213 n. 5 Ross, Mrs., companion of David, 214 n. 6; JB on, 214 n. 6 Rotenkreutz, Jean-Baptiste Feronce von (1723–99), German diplomat, 104–05 n. 2 Rotterdam: JB in, 135 n. 1 Roughead, William, ‘The Wandering Jurist; or, Boswell’s Queer Client’, 149 n. 2 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712–78), French philosopher and author, 11, 13, 87 n. 5, 107 n. 3, 111 n. 9, 177 n. 1, 183 n. 10, 249 n. 7, 254–55 n. 7, 288 n. 19; JB’s correspondence with, 12, 362 n. 16; JB meets at Môtiers, 11; invited to prepare ‘a set of laws’ for Corsica, 11; praises Corsicans, 11 n. 81; Contrat social, 11 n. 81, 12 Rowden, Robert, landlord of Star and Garter tavern, London, 260, 261 n. 5 Roy, William (1726–90), surveyor, 191 n. 5; Military Antiquities of the Romans in Britain, 182 n. 2 Rozelle (or Rosel), Ayrshire, 196 and n. 4, 347 Rudman, Thomas (d. 1741), musician, 214 n. 6 Russel, Mr., upholsterer in London, 261, 310 n. 8 Russell, Gertrude (Leveson-Gower) (d. 1794), Duchess of Bedford, 316 n. 3 Russell, John (1710–71), 4th D. of Bedford, 315, 316 n. 3; speech in Douglas Cause in House of Lords, 329 n. 38 Russia, 289; Kazan, 292 n. 17; Siberia, 292 n. 17 Rutherfurd, Mrs., former governess of MM, 346–47 n. 1 Ruthven, Lady Anne (Stuart) (d. 1786), 2nd wife of following, 184 n. 3 Ruthven, James (d. 1783), 5th Lord Ruthven of Freeland, 184 n. 3 Ruthven of Freeland, 5th Lord. See Ruthven, James, 5th Lord Ruthven of Freeland

437

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 437

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Ryland, John (1753–1825), theologian and Baptist minister, son of following, 302 and n. 3 Ryland, John Collett (1723–92), schoolmaster and Baptist minister, 299, 301 n. 7, 302 n. 3; JB on, 299; on use of cards as method of teaching sciences, 299, 301 n. 8; An Easy Introduction to Mechanics, 299, 301 n. 8; An Easy and Pleasant Introduction to Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophy, 301 n. 8 St. Andrews, 110 n. 7, 126 n. 5 St. Andrews, University of, 97 n. 1; United College, 73 n. 9 St. John, Frederick (1734–87), 2nd V. Bolingbroke, 295 n. 6; possible reference to, 293 St. John, Henry (1678–1751), 1st V. Bolingbroke, 53 n. 25, 272, 276 n. 23, 295 n. 6; possible reference to, 293; Letter on the Spirit of Patriotism, 46, 53 n. 25 St. Petersburg, Court of, 253 n. 2 Salthill, Berkshire, 295 n. 15; probable reference to, 294 Sanders, Robert (c. 1727–83), author, 304 n. 2 Sandilands, James (d. 1753), 7th Lord Torphichen, 60 n. 58 Sandwich, Lord. See Montagu, John, 4th E. of Sandwich Sanry, Pierre, French acrobat, 21, 105 n. 1 Sappho (c. 610–c. 570 b.c.), Greek lyric poet, 260 n. 2 Sassone, Il. See Hasse, Johann Adolph Saunders, William (1743–1817), physician, 269 n. 31; probable reference to, 263 Savage, Richard (c. 1654–1712), 4th E. Rivers, 322 n. 2 Savage, Richard (d. 1743), poet, 322 n. 2 Scanlan, J. T., ‘”How Like You the Eloquence of a Young Barrister?”: Love and the Law in Boswell’s Development as a Writer in the Late 1760s’, 80 n. 14 Schopenhauer, Arthur (1788–1860), German philosopher, 290–91 n. 2 Scipio, Lucius Cornelius (fl. 259 b.c.), Roman consul: and conquest of Corsica, 52–53 n. 22

Scoon, John, of Netherthornywhatts, 183 n. 1 Scotland: Commissioners for the Forfeited Annexed Estates, 128 n. 1; Commissioners and Trustees for Improving Fisheries and Manufactures in Scotland, 126 n. 5, 128 n. 1; battle of Culloden, 210 n. 2, 318 n. 8; dams (game), 69, 71 n. 7; Declaration of Arbroath (1320), 12, 58–59 n. 48; battle of Flodden, 157 n. 2; battle of Glenshiel, 179 n. 2; Jacobite rising of 1715, 179 n. 2; Jacobite rising of 1745, 98 nn. 4, 5, 179 n. 2, 307 n. 1, 318 n. 8; Jacobitism, 348; meal riots in, 173–74 n. 1, 191 n. 7, 191–92 n. 1; National Covenant (1638), 64 n. 76, 166 n. 5; Parliament of, 64 n. 77, 108 n. 4, 119 n. 6, 309, 332, 334 n. 12, 335 n. 13; battle of Prestonpans, 140 n. 10; Privy Council of, 143–44 n. 3; representative peers of, 64 n. 80, 115 n. 7, 127 n. 3, 133 n. 4, 205 n. 2, 210 n. 2, 211 n. 4, 222 n. 6, 253 n. 2; ‘Scotch Ale’, 195 n. 4, 199; Scots pint, 195 n. 4; Scotticisms, 50–51 n. 15, 354, 355 n. 1; Scottish Enlightenment, 216 n. 3, 217 n. 4; ‘small’ (or ‘table’) beer, 252 n. 8; ‘Twopenny’ (or ‘Tuppeny’) ale, 194, 195 n. 4, 199, 201; Union of 1707, 12–14, 108 n. 4, 195 n. 4, 216 n. 1; weather in winter of 1766/67, 142 and n. 1 Scots Brigade, in Holland, 71 n. 1, 103–04 n. 1, 185 n. 2 Scots law: admissibility of testimony from enslaved African person, 134 n. 1; contempt of court, 75 n. 2; election law, 205 n. 2; habit and repute a thief not in itself a crime, 59 n. 49; husband curator of wife, 164–65 n. 4; nominal and fictitious votes, 205 n. 2; presumption of filiation, 279, 282 n. 31; remedy of redhibition, 333 n. 9; theft of flock of sheep capital offence, 57 n. 47; transportation to plantations, 59 n. 49 Scots Magazine, The, 22–23, 75 n. 2, 105 n. 1, 248 n. 3 Scott, George Lewis (1708–80), mathematician, 317 and n. 2; JB on, 317 n. 2 Scott, Gen. John (1725–75), of Balcomie, 71 n. 8

438

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 438

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Scott, Magdalen (Le Mercier) (d. 1770), 2nd wife of William, 136, 138 nn. 11, 13 Scott, Walter (1729–99), W.S., father of following, 114, 115 n. 4, 249 Scott, Sir Walter (1771–1832), 115 n. 4; Guy Mannering, 78–79 n. 8 Scott, William (1672–1735), Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University, 138 n. 11 Scottish Register, The, 229 n. 6 Seceders (Associate Presbytery), 164 n. 2, 166 n. 5 Sempill, Anne (c. 1738–1813), at Donaghadee, 355 n. 3 Sempill, Elizabeth (d. 1828), at Donaghadee, 355 n. 3 Sempill, Francelina (c. 1745–95), at Donaghadee, dau. of Josia, 355 n. 3 Sempill, James (c. 1733–78), at Donaghadee, son of following, 355 n. 3 Sempill, Josia (c. 1703–80), at Donaghadee, 355 n. 3 Sempill, Mary (c. 1749–1822), at Donaghadee, 355 n. 3 Sempill, Mary Anne (c. 1751–1817), at Donaghadee, 355 n. 3 Sempill, Willoughby (c. 1727–85), at Donaghadee, son of Josia, 355 n. 3 Sempill family, 355 n. 3 Semple, Mr., possible reference to a Mr. Sempill, 355 Senegal, 301 n. 10 Serooskerken, Isabella Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll van. See Zuylen, Belle de Seven Years’ War, 99 n. 1, 103 n. 5, 120 n. 1, 159 n. 1, 188 n. 1, 358 n. 12; Treaty of Paris, 109 n. 6 Seymour, Henry (1729–1807), M.P., 305 n. 5 Seymour, Terry I., Boswell’s Books, 61 n. 65 Seymour-Conway, Francis (1718–94), 1st E. (later 1st M.) of Hertford, 316 n. 3, 362 n. 15 Shaftesbury, 3rd E. of. See Cooper, Anthony Ashley, 3rd E. of Shaftesbury Shakespeare, William (1564–1616): As You Like It, 230 n. 5; Hamlet, 314, 315 n. 6; 1 Henry IV, 131 n. 2, 190 n. 3; Julius Caesar, 110 n. 9; Macbeth, 230 n. 5; The Merchant of Venice, 230 n. 5; Othello, 129 n. 1

Sharp, Samuel (1709–78), Letters from Italy, 293 n. 24 Shaws, Dumfriesshire, 187 Shebbeare, Dr. John (1709–88), political polemicist, 104 n. 1; An Authentic Narrative of the Oppressions of the Islanders of Jersey, 104 n. 1 Shelburne, 1st E. of. See Petty, John, 1st E. of Shelburne Shelburne, 2nd E. of. See Petty, William, 2nd E. of Shelburne Sheriff court, 61 n. 70, 101 n. 3, 114, 116–17 n. 8, 175 n. 1 Sherwin, Henry, Sherwin’s Mathematical Tables, 106–07 n. 1 Siculus, Diodorus (fl. 1st cent. b.c.), Greek historian, 47; Bibliothecae Historicae, 61 n. 67 Siege of Carrickfergus, The, song, 356, 358 nn. 12, 13 Siena: JB in, 362–63 n. 16 Simson, Miss, prostitute in London, 263; possible reference to prostitute whom JB met in London in 1760, 269 n. 33 Sinclair, Alexander (d. 1765), 9th E. of Caithness, 79–80 n. 14 Sinclair, George (d. 1696), Professor of Mathematics and Experimental Philosophy at Glasgow University, 60 n. 58; Satan’s Invisible World discovered, 60 n. 58 Sinclair, Sir John (d. 1774), of Mey, Bt., 219 n. 2; cause of David Henderson of Stempster v. Sir John Sinclair of Mey, 218, 219 n. 2, 226 n. 4, 236 n. 1 Sinclair, Sir John (d. 1789), of Stevenson, Bt., 79–80 n. 14; cause of Countess of Caithness v. Countess Fife and Earl Fife and Sir John Sinclair, 79–80 n. 14 Sinclair, Margaret (Primrose) (d. 1785), Countess of Caithness, 77, 79–80 n. 14; cause of Countess of Caithness v. Countess Fife and Earl Fife and Sir John Sinclair, 79–80 n. 14 Sinclair, Robert (d. 1802), advocate, 99 n. 1 Sir William Forbes, James Hunter and Co., 233 n. 4, 268 n. 27 Sir James Maxwell of Pollock, Baronet, James Ritchie and Company, 224 n. 5

439

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 439

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Siward, Sir Richard (fl. 1298), 182 n. 2 Skene, George, of Skene, 206 n. 2, 219 n. 2; cause of George Skene v. George Graham, 206–07 n. 2; cause of George Skene of Skene and William Milne of Bonnytown v. David Wallace, 218, 219–20 n. 2, 221–22 n. 5, 225 n. 1, 226 n. 4 Skeoch, John (d. 1765), smith in Stewarton, 173 n. 1 Skeoch, John, son of preceding, 173–74 n. 1, 194 n. 1; trial of James Barclay and others (‘the Stewarton rioters’), 4, 38, 172–73, 173–74 n. 1, 194 and n. 1 Slough, 277 Small, John (d. 1795), macer of Court of Session, 251, 251–52 n. 4, 253, 255–57, 260, 307, 309 Smeathman, Mr., innkeeper at Barnby Moor, 259 n. 8 Smith, Adam (1723–90), Scottish economist and philosopher, 52 n. 21, 60 n. 61; and Lord Kames, 112 n. 18; as Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University, 52 n. 21; Theory of Moral Sentiments, 217 n. 4 Smith, Agnes (Laurie), 1st wife of William and mother of Prof. John, 285 n. 2 Smith, Elizabeth (Mudie or Moodie) (1709–c. 1791), widow of Robert, 226 n. 7, 242 and n. 5; cause of William Smith v. Elisabeth Moodie, 242–43 n. 5 Smith, James (c. 1645–1731), architect, 180 n. 14 Smith, Janet (bap. 1738), dau. of William, 286 n. 4; probable reference to, 283 Smith, Janet (Smith), 2nd wife of William and mother of preceding, 286 n. 4 Smith John, dealer in horses at Loudoun Hill, 147, 147–48 n. 1, 333 n. 9; cause of John Smith v. Archibald Steel, 7, 39, 147, 147–48 n. 1, 332, 333–34 n. 9 Smith, John, of Drongan, father of Mungo, 155 n. 2 Smith, Prof. John (1719–96), Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford University, 218 n. 1, 283, 285 n. 2; JB dines with, 289; JB on, 285 n. 2, 289; admirer of Hume, 283; foe of SJ, 283

Smith, Lucy (Tindal) (d. 1797), wife of preceding, 285 n. 2 Smith, Magdalen (Hay) (d. 1823), wife of William Mudie Smith, 243 n. 5 Smith, Mungo (d. 1814), of Drongan, 155 and n. 2 Smith, Robert (d. 1752), of Forret, physician in Montrose, 242–43 n. 5 Smith, William, merchant in Maybole, father of Prof. John, 285 n. 2, 286 n. 4 Smith, William Mudie (or Moodie) (1745– 85), son of Robert, 242–43 n. 5; cause of William Smith v. Elisabeth Moodie, 242–43 n. 5 Smollett, Tobias (1721–71), author, 108 n. 6, 146 n. 2, 287–88 n. 19; The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, 195 n. 4 Smyth, Edward (1705–88), Lisburn merchant, 360, 361 n. 10 Smyth, James (d. 1781), W.S., 206–07 n. 2 Smyth, James Carmichael (1742–1821), physician, 269 n. 32; probable reference to, 263 Smyton (or Smytane or Smeaton), David (d. 1788), minister of Associate Congregation of Anti-Burgher Seceders at Kilmaurs, 163–64, 164 n. 2, 164–66 n. 4, 171 and n. 4; cause of Hugh Kerr v. Margaret and Lilias Thomson, 10, 79 n. 11, 80 n. 1, 163, 164–66 n. 4, 171 n. 4 Smyton, Margaret (Thomson), wife of preceding, 10, 79 n. 11, 164–66 n. 4, 171 and n. 4; cause of Hugh Kerr v. Margaret and Lilias Thomson, 10, 79 n. 11, 80 n. 1, 163, 164–66 n. 4, 171 n. 4 Snetzler, John (1710–85), organ maker, London, 238–39 n. 2 Socrates (c. 470–399 b.c.), Greek philosopher, 97, 98–99 n. 7 Solemn League and Covenant (1643), 166 n. 5 Solomon, Moses, dealer in watches, 264–65 n. 6 Somerville, Thomas (1741–1830), My Own Life and Times, 213 n. 3 Sommelsdyck, Admiral François van Aerssen van (1669–1740), 143 n. 2 Sommelsdyck, François Cornelius van Aerssen, Heer van (1725–93), 143 and

440

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 440

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index n. 2; JB’s correspondence with, 143 and n. 2; JB on, 143 n. 2 Sommelsdyck, Maria van Aerssen (van Wernhout) van (1682–1761), mother of preceding, 143 n. 2 Sornbeg, Ayrshire, 142 and n. 3 Sowdon, John (1712–84), actor, singer, manager, 230 and n. 5 Spain, 179 n. 2; Barcelona, 267 n. 26; Malaga, 226 n. 4; Spaniards, as portrayed in caricature, 88 n. 9; Valencia, 55 n. 31 Spearman, Edward (d. 1762), of Preston, bro. of John, 255 n. 10 Spearman, Eleanor (Anderson), 1st wife of following, 255 n. 10 Spearman, George (1710–53), of Preston, father of John, 255 n. 10 Spearman, John (b. 1737), attorney in Newcastle, 253, 255 n. 10 Spectator, The, 145 n. 1 Spencer, John (1734–83), 1st E. Spencer, 214 n. 6 Spencer, Hon. John (1708–46), father of preceding, 214 n. 6 Spenser, Edmund (?1552–99), Faerie Queene, 126 n. 5 Spinoza, Benedict de (1632–77), philosopher, 315 n. 4 Springkell, Dumfriesshire, 134 n. 1 Springvale, County Down, 354 n. 24; probable reference to, 352 Stair, 2nd E. of. See Dalrymple, John, 2nd E. of Stair Stair, 3rd E. of. See Dalrymple, James, 3rd E. of Stair Stair, 1st V. See Dalrymple, James, 1st V. Stair Stair, Ayrshire, 166 n. 2, 197 nn. 3, 6; Pant, 196, 197 n. 7; Stair House, 197 n. 3 Stamitz, Johann (1717–57), the elder, composer in Mannheim, 98 n. 4 Stammer, Ekhard August von (1705–74), Teutonic Knight, 104–05 n. 2 Stanyan, Abraham (c. 1670–1732), Account of Switzerland, 45, 51 n. 16 Steel, Archibald, miller at Catrine Mill, 147, 147–48 n. 1, 333 n. 9; cause of John Smith v. Archibald Steel, 7, 39, 147, 147–48 n. 1, 332, 333–34 n. 9

Steel (or Steele), Rev. John (d. 1804), of Gadgirth, minister of Stair, 196, 197 n. 5 Steel, Ralph (d. 1775), innkeeper at Newcastle, 253 n. 3 Steele, Sir Richard (1672–1729), The Conscious Lovers, 293 n. 24 Stephanus, Henricus (d. 1598), Juris Civilis Fontes et Rivi, 56 n. 40 Stephen, Anne (Mudie), wife of following, 242 n. 5 Stephen, Robert, of Letham, merchant in Montrose, 242 n. 5 Stevenson, James (unidentified), 100 Stevenson, John (1695–1775), Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Edinburgh University, 240, 240–41 n. 5, 287 n. 12 Stevenson, Robert, husband of Nancy Cumming of Newry, 364 n. 4 Stewart, Alexander (c. 1694–1773), 6th E. of Galloway, 221, 222 n. 9, 230 and n. 1 Stewart, Capt. (later Maj.-Gen.) Alexander, 197 n. 6 Stewart, Alexander (1697–1781), of Mount Stewart and Ballywan Castle, 355, 357 nn. 5, 6 Stewart, Archibald (d. 1779), merchant in Rotterdam, younger bro. of Houston Stewart-Nicolson, 135 n. 1; generous to JB when melancholy in Utrecht, 135 n. 1 Stewart, Archibald (d. 1779), of Stewarthall, son of Walter, 172 and n. 5 Stewart, Catherine (Cochrane) (d. 1786), Countess of Galloway, 230 n. 1 Stewart, Francis (d. 1760), son of Francis Stewart, 7th E. of Moray, 286 n. 6 Stewart, Francis (‘Frank’) (d. 1768), son of preceding, 283–85, 286 n. 6, 288–89, 310, 315, 317; admires JB’s Account of Corsica, 283; JB on, 283–84; says JB a walking collection of men, 289 Stewart, Francis (d. 1739), 7th E. of Moray, 286 n. 6 Stewart, Helen (Houston) (d. 1746), wife of Sir Michael, 134 n. 1 Stewart, Helen (Montgomerie) (1712–47), younger sister of Alexander Montgomerie, 10th E. of Eglinton, 286 n. 6

441

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 441

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Stewart (or Steuart), Sir James Denham (1713–80), of Coltness, Bt., advocate, 97, 98 n. 5; An Inquiry Into the Principles of Political Economy, 98 n. 5 Stewart, Sir John (1687–1764), of Grandtully and Murthly, Bt., husband of Lady Jane Douglas, 329 n. 42; in Douglas Cause, 20–21, 26, 190 n. 3, 282 n. 32, 325, 327 n. 21, 328 n. 32, 329–30 n. 42 Stewart, Margaret (‘Peggy’), sister of Houston Stewart-Nicolson, 134 n. 1 Stewart, Sir Michael (1712–96), of Blackhall, Bt., advocate, 134 n. 1 Stewart, Robert (1739–1821), 1st M. of Londonderry, 357 n. 5 Stewart, Robert (1769–1822), styled V. Castlereagh, later 2nd M. of Londonderry, 357 n. 5 Stewart, Samuel, messenger-at-arms in Irvine, 122 n. 5; cause of Thomas Millar v. George Glasgow and Samuel Stewart, 122 n. 5 Stewart, Sholto Thomas (d. 1753): in Douglas Cause, 20–22, 26, 105 n. 1, 328 n. 32 Stewart, Walter, of Stewarthall, 172 n. 5 Stewart, William, alias James Smith, cattlestealer, 110–11, 112 nn. 10, 17, 113 and nn. 2, 4; trial of, 110–11, 112 n. 10, 113 and nn. 2–4 Stewart-Nicolson, Houston (1741–86), 2nd son of Sir Michael Stewart of Blackhall, 134 and n. 1, 249; associated by JB with dissipation, 134, 135 n. 1; JB’s friendship with, 134 n. 1; JB on, 134 n. 1; contributes prologues to theatre in Edinburgh, 134 n. 1; A Collection of Original Poems by Scotch Gentlemen (contribution to), 134 n. 1 Stewart-Nicolson, Margaret (Porterfield), wife of preceding, 134 n. 1 Stewarton, Ayrshire, 346 n. 5; meal riot in, 172–73, 173–74 n. 1; Oliver’s tavern, 345; parish of, 82 n. 8; parish church, 172 and n. 1 Stirling Castle, 211 n. 2, 322–23 n. 2 Stobie, John (c. 1715–92), writer in Edinburgh, law clerk to Lord Auchinleck, 80, 81 n. 3, 123, 141, 188; JB finds impertinent, 81 n. 3

Stoics, 148 n. 2 Stonefield, Lord. See Campbell, John, Lord Stonefield Stormont, 7th V. See Murray, David, 7th V. Stormont Stracathro, Forfarshire, 206 n. 2 Strahan, William (1715–85), printer and publisher, 321 n. 8 Strange, Isabella (Lumisden) (1719–1806), wife of following, 318 n. 8 Strange, Robert (later Sir Robert, Kt.) (1721–92), line-engraver, 108 n. 3, 317, 318 n. 8; JB’s correspondence with, 318 n. 8 Stranraer, Wigtownshire, 350, 352 n. 6 Strathaven, Lanarkshire, 142 and n. 2 Strathmore and Kinghorne, 8th E. of. See Lyon, Thomas, 8th E. of Strathmore and Kinghorne Strathmore and Kinghorne, 9th E. of. See Lyon, John, 9th E. of Strathmore and Kinghorne Strichen, Lord. See Fraser, Alexander, Lord Strichen Stuart, Andrew (1725–1801), W.S., 107 n. 1, 247 n. 2; in Douglas Cause, 107 n. 1; poem ‘To the Author of the Poem on the Hamilton Cause’, 107 n. 1 Stuart, Charlotte (Hickman-Windsor) (1746–1800), 1st wife of Lord Mountstuart, 332 n. 1 Stuart, Lady Elizabeth (MacDowall-Crichton) (1772–97), wife of Hon. John Stuart, 332 n. 1 Stuart, John (1713–92), 3rd E. of Bute, 108–09 n. 6, 184 n. 3, 205 n. 2, 223 n. 15, 263 n. 2, 264 n. 3, 297 nn. 2, 4 Stuart, John (1744–1814), Lord Mounstuart, styled V., later 4th E. and 1st M. of Bute, eldest son of preceding, 9, 262, 263–64 n. 2, 302, 331; JB’s correspondence with, 331 n. 4; JB’s law thesis dedicated to, 56 n. 40; quarrels with JB during Italian travels, 331 n. 4 Stuart, Hon. John (1767–94), son of preceding, 331, 332–33 n. 1 Sundrum, Ayrshire, 161 n. 5 Sutherland, Elizabeth Sutherland (1765– 1839), Countess of, 107 n. 2, 121 and

442

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 442

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index n. 1; served as heir to father, 121 and n. 1; right to peerage challenged, 121 n. 1; cause of Countess of Sutherland v. Sir Robert Gordon, 121 n. 1 Sutherland, Mary (Maxwell) (d. 1766), Countess of Sutherland, mother of preceding, 121 n. 1 Sutherland, William (1735–66), 17th (or 18th) E. of Sutherland, husband of preceding, 121 n. 1 Swift, Jonathan (1667–1745), 337, 339 n. 32; Conduct of the Allies, 337, 339 n. 34 Swinton, John (d. 1799), advocate, later Lord Swinton, 206 n. 2; career of, 206 n. 2 Switzerland, 51 n. 16; Colombier, 215 n. 1 Tacitus (Publius Cornelius Tacitus) (c. a.d. 56–c. 120), Roman historian, De Situ, Moribus, et Populis Germaniae Libellus, 47, 62–63 n. 72, 63 nn. 73–74 Tairly, Ayrshire, 116–17 n.8 Tait, Alexander (d. 1781), W.S., 132 and n. 2, 242 Tait, Charles (Murdoch) (d. 1784), wife of John, 89, 89–90 n. 1 Tait, Janet (Blair) (d. 1805), wife of Alexander, 132 and nn. 3, 4 Tait, John (1727–1800), W.S., 89, 89–90 n. 1, 90 n. 2, 156 n. 1; JB’s correspondence with, 156 n. 1 Taunton, Somerset, 263 n. 1 Taylor, Andrew (c. 1727–77), writer in Ayr, 194, 195 n. 6 Taylor, Robert Paris (?1741–92), M.P., 252 n. 3 Taylor, William, writer in Edinburgh, 123 and n. 3, 123–24 n. 5; cause of Peter Hay of Leyes v. William Taylor, 123 n. 3 Temple, Robert (1747–83), younger bro. of following, 297 n. 2 Temple, Rev. William Johnson (1739–96) (WJT), 8, 16, 85 n. 2, 87 n. 5, 113 n. 1, 186 n. 3, 297 n. 2, 306 n. 4, 359; gives JB advice on Account of Corsica, 17; takes JB to ‘Porter’s Chapel’ in Edinburgh for Anglican form of service, 238 n. 2; JB’s correspondence with, 1 n. 5, 2 nn. 8–9, 5 and n. 30, 6 and n. 37, 8–9, 16–17, 29,

30 and nn. 210–15, 31–37, 51 n. 16, 57 n. 42, 74 n. 13, 78 n. 2, 82 n. 4, 87 n. 5, 89 n. 5, 90 n. 4, 93 n. 2, 96 n. 3, 107–08 n. 3, 114 n. 1, 127 n. 2, 129 n. 1, 130–31, 131 nn. 1, 5, 136 nn. 6, 7, 140 n. 15, 142 n. 5, 147, 148–49 n. 2, 166, 167 n. 4, 171–72 n. 7, 179 n. 2, 186 n. 3, 195–96 n. 4, 197 n. 1, 201 n. 3, 202 n. 11, 208 n. 3, 208–09 n. 7, 214 nn. 1, 5, 215 n. 2, 222 n. 11, 239 n. 5, 239–40 n. 1, 243 n. 8, 250 n. 1, 263 n. 1, 270 n. 1, 280 n. 3, 297 n. 2, 304 n. 1, 306 n. 4, 311 nn. 1, 5, 314 n. 1, 316 n. 3, 321 n. 8, 343, 344 n. 10, 349 n. 10, 351 n. 14, 359 and n. 1 Temple, parish of, Midlothian, 73 n. 9; church, 71–72 n. 2 Templeton, James, constable in Excise Office in Edinburgh, 47, 61 n. 68 Templeton, Thomas, husband of Jane Cumming of Newry, 364 n. 4 Terence (Publius Terentius Afer) (c. 195–c. 159 b.c.), Roman writer of comedies, 56 n. 40 Terraughty (or Terraughtie), Kirkcudbrightshire, 180 n. 13, 187 Theodore. See Neuhoff, Theodore von Thévenot, Melchisédech (?1620–92), The Art of Swimming, 312–13 n. 3 Thomas (servant to Robert Herries), 263 Thomas of Erceldoune (Thomas the Rhymer) (fl. late 13th cent.), 118, 119 n. 8 Thomson, Andrew, indweller in the Kirktown of Corram, 115 n. 1 Thomson, Rev. Hugh (d. 1731), minister of Kilmaurs, 165 n. 4 Thomson, James (1700–48), poet, 336, 338 n. 14; SJ on, 336; Alfred: a Masque, 338 n. 14; The Seasons, 338 n. 14 Thomson, Lilias, dau. of Rev. Hugh Thomson, 10, 79 n. 11, 92 n. 5, 164–66 n. 4; cause of Hugh Kerr v. Margaret and Lilias Thomson, 10, 79 n. 11, 80 n. 1, 163, 164–66 n. 4, 171 n. 4 Thomson, Margaret. See Smyton, Margaret (Thomson) Thorburn, Rev. James (1728–1810), minister of Kingarth, 347 n. 8 Thorburn, Margaret (Blair) (d. 1779), wife of preceding, 347 n. 8

443

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 443

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Thurot, François (1727–60), French naval captain, 358 n. 12 Tibber (stream), 181, 182 n. 2 Tibbers Castle, 182 n. 2 Tiberius (42 b.c.–a.d. 37), Roman emperor, 182 n. 2 Tinwald, Lord. See Erskine, Charles, Lord Tinwald Titian (d. 1576), Italian painter, 318 n. 8 Tobago, 218 n. 1 Toland, John (1670–1722), philosopher, 315 n. 4 Tonson, Jacob (?1656–1736), bookseller and publisher in London, 45, 51 n. 16 Torphichen, Lord. See Sandilands, James, Lord Torphichen Toulon: JB in, 269 n. 28 Townshend, George (1724–1807), 4th V. Townshend of Raynham, 365, 366 n. 1 Trabboch, the, Ayrshire, 166, 166–67 n. 3 Trail, James (1650–1721), father of John, 322–23 n. 2 Trail, Right Rev. James (1725–83), Bishop of Down and Connor, 360, 362 n. 15, 363 n. 16 Trail, Janet (Row), mother of following, 322–23 n. 2 Trail, John (1700–74), dissenting minister in London, later lecturer in New North Kirk, Edinburgh, 322, 322–23 n. 2 Trail, Robert (1642–1716), Presbyterian minister and evangelical writer, 322–23 n. 2 Trajan (a.d. 53–117), Roman emperor, 72 n. 4 Trecothick, Barlow (?1718–75), M.P., 263, 267 n. 21 Treesbank, Ayrshire, 170, 171 n. 2, 344 Treesbank, family of, 345 Trinidad, 129 n. 2 Trotz, Christian Heinrich (1706–73), Professor of Civil Law at Utrecht University, 360, 362 n. 12; JB on, 362 n. 12; Tractatus Juris de Memoria Propagata, 360, 362 n. 13 Tulliemenoch (or Tallaminnoch), Ayrshire, 116–18 n. 8 Turin: JB in, 50 n. 10

Turnbull, Gordon, ‘Biography and the Union’, 14 n. 103, 22 n. 169; ‘James Boswell and John Trail (1700–1774)’, 323 n. 2 Turnbull, Joseph (d. 1775), player of Norhumbrian pipes, 252, 253 n. 9 Turnbull, Rev. Thomas (1701–86), minister of Borthwick, 73 n. 9; possible reference to, 71 Tuxford, Nottinghamshire, 260 n. 1 Tuyll van Serooskerken, Gen. Hendrik Willem Jacob van, uncle of Belle de Zuylen, 104 n. 2 Tweeddale, 4th M. of. See Hay, John, 4th M. of Tweeddale Ulster: immigration from Scotland, 357–58 n. 8; dissenters in, 357–58 n. 8; Quakerism in, 361 n. 9 Ulubrae, 227 n. 2 Universal Gazetteer, The, 319, 320 n. 3 Upnor Castle, Kent, 359 n. 14 Upper Glencraig, Ayrshire, 116 n. 8 Urie, Robert (bap. 1713–71), publisher and bookseller, 144 n. 5 Urquhart, Jean (Urquhart) (d. 1767), wife of following, 126 n. 6 Urquhart, John (d. 1756), of Craigston and Cromarty, 126 n. 6 Utrecht, 168, 170 n. 7, 314; Teutonic Order of Bailiwick of, 103–04 n. 1 Utrecht, University of, 2 and n. 9, 360, 362 n. 12 Valleyfield House, 137 n. 3, 210 n. 3 Van Dyck, Sir Anthony (1599–1641), court painter in England, 318 n. 8 Vanbrugh, Sir John (1664–1726), The Provok’d Husband, 279, 282 nn. 26, 29 Veitch, James (1712–93), Lord Elliock, 138, 139 n. 3, 234 n. 1; JB on, 328 n. 29; career of, 139 n. 3; in Douglas Cause, 324, 328 n. 30 Venice: JB in, 263 n. 2 Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) (70–19 b.c.), Roman poet, 56 n. 40 Vitruvius, Marcus (fl. 1st cent. b.c.), Roman architect, 258 n. 4

444

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 444

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) (1694– 1778), 53 n. 23; Essai sur l’histoire générale, 14–15, 46, 53 n. 23, 284, 287–88 n. 19 Wade, George (1673–1748), soldier and military road builder, 364 n. 6 Wallace, David, merchant in Aberdeen, 219 n. 2; cause of George Skene of Skene and William Milne of Bonnytown v. David Wallace, 218, 219–20 n. 2, 221–22 n. 5, 225 n. 1, 226 n. 4 Wallace, George (1727–1805), advocate, 100 and n. 2, 111, 112 n. 17, 113, 176; JB on, 100 n. 2 Wallace, James (bap. 1747), son of following, 118 n. 3, 150 n. 2 Wallace, Jean (Denhame), 118 n. 3 Wallace, Thomas (unidentified), 198, 199 n. 6 Wallace, Sir Thomas (1702–70), of Craigie, Bt., advocate, 195 n. 2, 350, 351 n. 3 Wallace, William, writer in Edinburgh, husband of Jean, 118 and n. 3, 149–50 n. 2; cause of James Gilkie v. William Wallace, 118 and n. 3, 149–50 n. 2, 150 Wallace, William (d. 1786), advocate, Professor of Scots Law at Edinburgh University, 2 n. 6, 176 and n. 4; career of, 176 n. 4 Walpole, Horace (1717–97), later 4th E. of Orford, 90 n. 4, 270 n. 1, 315 n. 5; with JB in Paris, 270 n. 1; JB’s correspondence with, 270 n. 1; on E. of Hardwicke, 305 n. 4 Walpole, Sir Robert (1676–1745), 1st E. of Orford, statesman, 276 n. 23 Walpole, Thomas (1727–1803), M.P., 218 n. 1 War of Austrian Succession, 82 n. 5 War of Spanish Succession, 339 n. 34 Ward, Henry (fl. 1734–58), actor and minor dramatist, 250 n. 7; The Vintner Tricked, 249, 250 n. 7 Ward, William (1750–1823), later V. Dudley and Ward, 273 n. 2 Wardlaw, 174 and nn. 2, 6 Warnock, David, tenant in the Easter Town of Pollock, 139, 140 n. 8; cause of Poor David Warnock v. Sir James Maxwell of Pollok, 139, 140 n. 8

Warnock, Robert, ‘Boswell and Bishop Trail’, 362 n. 15 Watson-Wentworth, Charles (1730–82), 2nd M. of Rockingham, 257, 258 n. 7, 305 n. 4 Watson-Wentworth, Thomas (1693– 1750), 1st M. of Rockingham, 258 n. 7 Wayman, Dr. Luke, physician in London, 299, 302 n. 14 Webb, Caroline Elizabeth (Boyd) (c. 1746–c. 1830), 1st wife of following, 351, 353 n. 7 Webb, George (1756–1839), of Wardenstown, 353 n. 7 Webster, Alexander, son of following, 77 n. 7 Webster, Rev. Alexander (1707–84), minister at the Tolbooth Church, Edinburgh, 76–77 n. 7, 120–21 n. 1, 136, 137 n. 4, 211, 323 n. 2; JB on, 76 n. 7; An account of the number of people in Scotland, 76 n. 7 Webster, Ann, dau. of preceding, 77 n. 7 Webster, George (1744–94), cloth-merchant in Edinburgh, 3rd son of Rev. Alexander Webster, 77 n. 7, 120, 121 n. 1, 229 n. 6 Webster, Capt. Gilbert (d. 1792), 2nd husband of Mary Ann Boyd, 367 n. 13 Webster, Capt. James (1740–81), 2nd son of Rev. Alexander Webster, 77 n. 7, 120, 120–21 n. 1, 132 and n. 2, 252 and n. 2; JB on, 120–21 n. 1 Webster, John, son of Rev. Alexander Webster, 77 n. 7 Webster, Mary (Erskine) (1715–66), wife of Rev. Alexander Webster, 76–77 n. 7, 120 n. 1, 137 n. 4; JB on, 76–77 n. 7 Webster, William (1750–67), son of Rev. Alexander Webster, 75, 76–77 n. 7 Wedderburn, Alexander (1733–1805), barrister, later Lord Chancellor and 1st E. of Rosslyn, 336 n. 20 Wentworth, Annabella (1742–c. 1781), sister of Diana (Wentworth) Bosville, 273 n. 2; JB on, 273 n. 2 Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire, 258 n. 7 Wesley, John (1703–91), English cleric and founder of Methodism, 153 n. 1 West Indies, 132 n. 2, 161 n. 5, 168 n. 1, 212 n. 7, 218 n. 1

445

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 445

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Westminster Journal, The, 298 n. 9 White Gainoch, Ayrshire, 115–17 n. 8 White, Gilbert (1720–93), naturalist, 291 n. 7; The Natural History of Selborne, 291 n. 7 White Hill, Oxfordshire, 294, 295 n. 12 Whitefield, George (1714–70), Methodist evangelist, 259 n. 10 Whitefoord, Maj. Sir John (c. 1730–1803), of Ballochmyle, Bt., 188 n. 1, 236 Whithorn, Wigtownshire, 191 n. 7 Wight, Alexander (d. 1793), advocate, 77, 78 n. 5, 99 n. 1 Wightman, John (c. 1670–1740), of Mauldslie, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 47, 64 n. 78 Wilkes, John (1725–97), radical politician, 22, 105, 108–10 n. 6, 244 n. 1, 277, 290, 299 n. 2, 321, 332; appearance of, 282 n. 23; JB sees on hustings, 39, 263; JB mistaken for, 278–79; JB on, 108–09 n. 6; flees to France, 109 n. 6; convicted of libel, 109 n. 6; champion of liberty, 12; elected for Middlesex, 293; riot in London after elected, 296, 297 n. 4, 316, 317 n. 6; and supporters, 25 n. 194; and general warrants, 25, 108–09 n. 6 Wilkes, Mary (Mead) (d. 1784), wife of preceding, 108 n. 6 Wilkes, Mary (‘Polly’) (b. 1750), dau. of John, 108 n. 6 Wilkie, John (d. 1785), publisher, 274 n. 7 Wilkinson, Tate (1739–1803), actor and theatre manager, 255, 256 nn. 3, 7 Will (butcher’s man), 263 William I (‘William the Conqueror’) (c. 1028–87), King of England, 296 n. 18 William III (1650–1702), King of England, Scotland and Ireland, 322 n. 4, 355 n. 2, 358 n. 11 William Alexander and Sons, 218 n. 1 Williamson, Peter (1730–99), 115 n. 2; Directory for the City of Edinburgh (1773– 1774), 77 n. 8, 90 n. 3, 121 n. 1, 123 n. 2, 127 n. 2, 132 n. 2, 137 n. 5, 210 n. 3, 211 n. 2, 216 n. 1, 217 n. 4, 229–30 n. 2, 232 nn. 1, 4, 235 n. 2, 246 n. 1, 274 n. 7, 326 n. 9; Directory, for the City of Edinburgh (1775–76), 229–30 n. 2

Willison, George (1741–97), Scottish portrait painter, 255 n. 7, 302 and n. 2, 314; paints JB’s portrait in Rome, 225 n. 7, 302 n. 2 Wilmot, Dr. James (d. 1807), later vicar of Alcester, 288–89, 291 n. 10 Wilson, Dr. Andrew (1718–92), Scottish philosopher and medical writer, 253, 254 nn. 5, 6, 255 n. 10; JB on, 254 n. 5 Wilson, Barbara (Arbuthnot) (bap. 1736), wife of following, 126 n. 6 Wilson, Dr. David, of Peterhead, 126 n. 6 Wilson, Rev. Gabriel (d. 1750), minister of Maxton and Rutherford, father of Andrew, 254 n. 5 Wilson, James, drover in Chapelhill, Annandale, 46, 57–58 n. 47 Wilson, James, junior, bailie of Kilmarnock, 168 n. 1; possible reference to, 168 Wilson, James, senior, bailie of Kilmarnock, 168 n. 1, 173; possible reference to, 168 Wilson, John, merchant, bailie of Kilmarnock, 168 n. 1 Wilson, Mary, wife of Andrew, 253, 254 n. 6; JB on, 253 Wilson, Rachel (Carson), mother of Andrew, 254 n. 5 Wilson, William (1710–87), of Howden, W.S., 77, 79 nn. 10, 11, 80 n. 1, 85, 89, 92 n. 5, 105, 114, 117 n. 8, 133, 151 n. 1, 249; visits Auchinleck estate, 79 n. 10; JB’s correspondence with, 79 n. 10; gives JB his first fee, 79 n. 10; JB on, 79 n. 10 Wilsons and Company, 168 n. 1 Wilton, Joseph (1722–1803), sculptor, 297, 298 nn. 10, 11 Winder, Anne (Courtenay), wife of following, 356 n. 3 Winder, Rev. Peter (c. 1702–75), incumbent of Bangor, 356 n. 3 Windsor Castle: 294, 296 nn. 18, 21; Round Tower, 294, 296 nn. 19, 21; St. George’s Chapel, 296 n. 18 Windsor, 2nd V. See Hickman-Windsor, Herbert, 2nd V. Windsor Winn, George (1725–98), Baron of Exchequer in Scotland, later Bt. and Lord Headley, 242 and n. 2 Wittenberg (Saxony): JB visits, 166 n. 10

446

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 446

27/02/23 6:14 PM

index Wolfe, Maj.-Gen. James (1727–59), 298 n. 11 Wolsey, Cardinal Thomas (1470/71–1530), 286 n. 5 Wood, Thomas (fl. 1731–34), surgeon in Edinburgh, 184 n. 2 World, The, 90–92 n. 4 Wright, Richard (c. 1739–86), physician, 307 n. 2; probable reference to, 306–07, 316 Wyndham, Charles (1710–63), 2nd E. of Egremont, 304, 305 nn. 6, 7 Wyvill, Christian Catherine (Clifton), mother of following, 306 n. 4 Wyvill, Rev. Christopher (1738–1822), later parliamentary reformer, 305, 306 n. 4, 307; WJT on, 306 n. 4 Wyvill, Edward, General Supervisor for Excise in Edinburgh, father of preceding, 306 n. 4 Yonge, Sir William (c. 1693–1755), Bt., politician, 241 n. 7 York, 256 n. 1; Assembly Rooms, 257, 258 n. 4; Blake Street, 258 n. 4; Bluitt’s Inn, 255–56, 256 n. 2; Lendal, 256 n. 2; Mint Yard, 256 nn. 2, 3; Theatre, 255, 256 n. 3; York Minster, 256–57, 258 n. 1 York Buildings Company, 179 n. 2 Yorke, Hon. Sir Joseph, (1724–92), Ambassador to The Hague, later 1st B. Dover, 357 n. 4 Yorke, Philip (1690–1764), 1st E. of Hardwicke, 69 n. 2, 305 n. 4 Yorke, Philip (1720–90), 2nd E. of Hardwicke, 304, 305 nn. 4, 5, 312, 313 n. 8; JB’s correspondence with, 305 n. 4; Letters from and to Sir Dudley Carleton, 305 n. 4 Yorkshire: JB on meeting of freeholders of, 306 n. 4; Yorkshire Association, 306 n. 4

Young, Agnes (Orr) (1722–1809), widow of William, 186–87 n. 3; possible reference to, 186 Young, Arthur (1741–1820), A Six Months Tour Through the North of England, 259 n. 8; A Tour in Ireland, 361 n. 8, 363 n. 17, 364 nn. 5, 7 Young, Elizabeth (Hunter) (d. 1825), wife of James, 159 n. 9 Young, Grizel (Craik) (c. 1732–1809), wife of Thomas Young of Youngfield, 185 n. 4; probable reference to, 184, 186 Young, Rev. James (d. 1795), minister of New Cumnock, 156, 159 n. 9, 178 Young, John, of Gulliehill, 181 n. 16 Young, Mary Maxwell, widow of preceding, 178, 181 n. 16 Young, Thomas (c. 1721–1804), of Youngfield, 185 n. 4 Young, Dr. Thomas (d. 1783), Professor of Midwifery at Edinburgh University, 96 n. 2, 243 n. 8 Young, Rev. William (1710–61), minister of Hutton and Corrie, Annandale, 186–87 n. 3 Zélide. See Zuylen, Belle de Zuylen, Isabella Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken, Belle de (1740–1805), (Zélide) later Mme. de Charrière, 104–05 n. 2, 312; Lord Auchinleck on, 215 n. 1; translation of JB’s Account of Corsica, 311 n. 1; JB’s correspondence with, 29 and n. 206, 34, 105 n. 2, 214, 214–15 n. 1, 250 n. 1, 310, 311 n. 1; JB’s courtship of, 29 and n. 206, 31, 34–36, 38, 76 n. 5, 214, 214–15 n. 1, 250 n. 1, 260, 269–70, 310, 311 n. 1; letter to Constant d’Hermenches, 311 n. 1; in London, 214 n. 1; Sir John Pringle on, 214 n. 1

447

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 447

27/02/23 6:14 PM

7836_Boswell & Milne.indd 448

27/02/23 6:14 PM